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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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\ mi -weekly rubLK^norTgmT^'ffE.'^i cuKKtN J i t^j'^^jDykkiiilTLK^TU^L 

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Vol.7, No. .TJ8. May 10, 1884. Annual Subscription, $30.U0. 


J. FENIMORE COOPER 







LOVELL’S LIBRARY-CATALOGUE 


i. Hyperion 20 

2> Outre-Mer 20 

3. The Happy Boy 10 

4. Arne 10 

5. F rankenstein .10 

6. TheLast of theMohicans.20 

7. Clytie 20 

8. The Moonstone, Part I.io 

9. The Moonstone, Part II. 10 

10. Oliver Twist 20 

xi. The Coming Race 10 

12. Leila... 10 

13. The Three Spaniards. . .20 

14. The Tricks of the Greeks.20 

15. L’Abbe Constantin 20 

16. Freckles 20 

17. The Dark Colleen 20 

18. They were Married ....10 

19. Seekers After God 20 

20. The Spanish Nun 10 

21. Green Mountain Boys .. 20 

22. Fleurette 20 

23. Second Thoughts 20 

24. The New Magdalen .... 20 

25. Divorce 20 

26. Life of Washington 20 

27. Social Etiquette 15 

28. Single Heart, Double 

Face 10 

29. Irene ; or, The Lonely 

Manor 20 

30. Vice Versa 20 

31. Ernest Maltravers 20 

32. The Haunted House... 10 

33. John Halifax 20 

34. 800 Leagues on the 

Amazon 10 

35. The Cryptogram 10 

36. Life of Marion 20 

37. Paul and Virginia 10 

38. A Tale of Two Cities. .. .20 

39. The Hermits 20 

40. An Adventure in Thule, 

etc 10 

41. A Marriage in HighLife2o 

42. Robin 20 

43. Two on a Tower 20 

44. Rasselas 10 

45. Alice; a sequel to Er- 

nest Maltravers 20 

46. Duke of Kandos 20 

47. Baron Munchausen 10 

48. A Princess of Thule.... 20 

49. The Secret Despatch.. . .20 

50. Early Days of Christian- 
ity, 2 Parts, each 20 

51. Vicar of Wakefield 10 

52. Progress and Poverty. . .20 

53. The Spy 20 

54. East Lynne 20 

55. A Strange Story 20 

56. Adam Bede, Part 1 15 

Adam Bede, Part II 15 

57. The Golden Shaft 20 

58. Portia 20 

59. Last Days of Pompeii. . .20 

60. The Two Duchesses. . . .20 

61. TomBrown’sSchoolDays.20 

62. Wooing O’t, 2 Pts. each. 15 

63. The Vendetta 20 

64. Hypatia, Part 1 15 

Hypatia, Part II . a «... 15 


65- 

66 . 

67. 

68 . 

69. 

70. 

7 1 - 

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105. 

106. 

107. 

108. 

109. 

1 10. 
hi. 

I 12. 

”3- 

114. 

115. 

1 16. 

t T 7< 

118. 

119. 

120. 

12 1. 

122. 

123. 

124. 

125. 

126. 


Selma 15 

Margaret and her Brides- 
maids 20 

Horse Shoe Robinson, 

2 Parts, each 15 

Gulliver’s Travels. .... .20 

Amos Barton 10 

The Berber — 20 

Silas Marner 10 

Queen of the County . . .20 

Life of Cromwell 15 

Jane Eyre 20 

Child’sHist’ry of Engl’d.20 

Molly Bawn 20 

Pillone 15 

Phyllis 20 

Romola, Part 1 15 

Rompla, Part II 15 

Science in ShortChapters.20 

Zanoni. .20 

A Daughter of Heth .... 20 
Right and Wrong Uses of 

the Bible 20 

Night and Morning, Pt. 1 . 15 
NightandMorning,Pt.II 15 

Shandon Bells 20 

Monica 10 

Heart and Science 20 

The Golden Calf 20 

The Dean’s Daughter.. .20 

Mrs. Geoffrey 20 

Pickw'ick Papers, Part 1 . 20 
Pickwick Papers, Part II. 20 

Airy, Fairy Lilian 20 

Macleod of Dare 20 

Tempest Tossed, Part I.20 
Tempest Tossed, P’t II. 20 
Letters from High Lat- 
itudes 20 

Gideon Fleyce 20 

India and Ceylon 20 

The Gypsy Queen 20 

The Admiral’s W ard .... 20 
Nimport, 2 Parts, each.. 15 

Harry Holbrooke. 20 

Tritons, 2 Parts, each ..15 
Let Nothing You Dismay, to 
Lady Audley’s Secret ... 20 
Woman’s Place To-day. 20 
Dunallan, 2 parts, each. 15 
Housekeeping and Home 

making 15 

No New Thing 20 

TheSpoopendykePapers.20 

False Hopes 15 

Labor and Capital 20 

Wanda, 2 parts, each ... 15 
More Words about Bible. 20 
Monsieur Lecocq, P’t. I.20 
Monsieur Lecocq, Pt. 1 1 . 20 
An Outline of Irish Hist. 10 

The Lerouge Case 20 

Paul Clifford 20 

A New Lease of Life.. .20 

Bourbon Lilies 20 

Other People’s Money.. 20 

Lady of Lyons 

Amcline de Bourg 15 

A Sea Queen 20 

The Ladies Lindores. . .20 

Haunted Hearts 10 

Loys, Lord Beresford. . .20 


127. 

128. 

129. 

130. 

131- 

132- 

133- 

*34- 

* 35 - 

136. 

137- 

138. 

139- 

140. 

141. 

142. 

M3- 

144- 

MS- 

146. 

147. 

148. 

149. 

150. 

Mi- 

152. 

M3- 

*53- 

*54- 

*55- 

156. 

*57* 

158. 

i59- 

160. 

161. 

162. 

163. 

164. 

165. 

166. 

167. 

168. 

169. 

170. 

171. 

172. 
03 * 
174. 

OS- 

176. 

07- 

178. 

09- 

180. 

181. 

182. 

183. 

184. 
* 85 * 


Under Two Flags, Pt 1 . 20 
Under Two Flags, Pt II. 20 

Money ; • . 10 

In Peril of His Life 20 

India; What can it teach 
us? 

i ets and Flashes 20 

loonshine and Margue- 
rites 

Mr. Scarborough s 
Family, 2 Parts, each . . 15 

Arden 15 

Tower of Percemont 20 

Yolande.. 20 

Cruel London 20 

The Gilded Clique 20 

Pike County Folks 20 

Cricket on the Hearth. . 10 

Henry Esmond 20 

Strange Adventures of a 

Phaeton 20 

Denis Duval 10 

01 dCuriosityShop,P’t 1 . 15 
01 dCuriosityShop,P’rt II. 15 

Ivanhoe, Part 1 15 

Ivanhoe, Part II 15 

White Wings 20 

The Sketch Book 20 

Catherine 10 

Janet’s Repentance 10 

Barnaby Rudge, Part I. . 15 
Barnaby Rudge, Part II. 15 

Felix Holt 20 

Richelieu 10 

Sunrise, Part 1 15 

Sunrise, Part II ... 15 

Tour of the World in 80 

Days 20 

Mystery of Orcival 20 

Lovel, the Widower. ... 10 
Romantic Adventures of 

a Milkmaid 10 

DavidCopperfield,Part I.20 
DavidCopperfield.P’rt II.20 
Charlotte Temple. . ..10 

Rienzi, 2 Parts, each ... 15 
Promise of Marriage. ... 10 

Faith and Unfaith 20 

The Happy Man 10 

Barry Lyndon 20 

Eyre’s Acquittal 10 

20,000 Leagues Under the ' 

Sea 20 

Anti-Slavery Days 20 

Beauty’s Daughter?" ...20 

Beyond the Sunrise 20 

Hard Times 20 

Tom Cringle’s Log .... 20 

Vanity Fair 30 

Underground Russia 

Middlemarch,2 Pts. eac’ 

Sir Tom 

Pelham 

The Story of Ida 

Madcap Violet 

The Little Pilgrim 10 

Kilmeny 20 

Whist, or Bumblepuppy ?. 10 
That Beautiful Wretch.. 20 

Her Mother’s Sin 20 

Green Pastures, etc 20 

Mysterious Island, Pt 1 . 15 



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or 482 Van Buren Street, Milwaukee, Wis. 



HOMEWARD BOUND: 

V 

OR, 

THE CHASE. 

‘ A TALE OF THE SEA. 


BY THE AUTHOR OF “ THE PILOT,” “ THE SPY,” ETC. 


“ Is it not strange, Canidius 
That from Tarentum, and Brundusium, 
He could so quickly cut the Ionian sea, 
And take in Toryne ? ” 

— Shakespeare. 


NEW YORK : 

JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY, 

1884* 





. r 










































PREFACE. 


In one respect, this book is a parallel to Franklin’s well- 
known apologue of the hatter and his sign. It was commenced 
with a sole view to exhibit the present state of society in the 
United States, through the agency, in part, of a set of charac- 
ters with different peculiarities, who had freshly arrived from 
Europe, and to whom the distinctive features of the country 
would be apt to present themselves with greater force, than to' 
those who had never lived beyond the influence of the things 
portrayed. By the original plan, the work was to open at the 
threshold of the country, or with the arrival of the travellers at 
Sandy Hook, from which point the tale was to have been 
carried regularly forward to its conclusion. But a consultation 
with others has left little more of this plan than the hatter’s 
friends left of his sign. As a vessel was introduced in the first 
chapter, the cry was for “ more ship,” until the work has be- 
come “ all ship ; ” it actually closing at, or near, the spot where 
it was originally intended it should commence. Owing to this 
diversion from the author’s design — a design that lay at the 
bottom of all his projects — a necessity has been created of 
running the tale through two separate works, or of making a 
hurried and insufficient conclusion. The former scheme has, 
consequently, been adopted. 

It is hoped that the interest of the narrative will not be 
essentially diminished by this arrangement. 

There will be, very likely, certain imaginative persons, who 
will feel disposed to deny that every minute event mentioned 
in these volumes ever befell one and the same ship, though 
ready enough to admit that they may very well have occurred 
to several different ships ; a mode of commenting that is much 
in favor with your small critic. To this objection, we shall 
make but a single answer. The caviller, if any there should 
prove to be, is challenged to produce the log-book of the Mon- 
tauk, London packet, and if it should be found to^ contain a 


4 


PREFACE. 


single sentence to controvert any one of our statements or 
facts, a frank recantation shall be made. Captain Truck is 
quite as well known in New York as in London or Portsmouth, 
and to him also we refer with confidence, for a confirmation of 
all we have said, with the exception, perhaps, of the little occa- 
sional touches of character that may allude directly to himself. 
In relation to * the latter, Mr. Leach, and particularly Mr. 
Saunders, are both invoked as unimpeachable witnesses. 

Most of our readers will probably know that all which ap- 
pears in a New York journal is not necessarily as true as the 
Gospel. As some slight deviations from the facts accidentally 
occur, though doubtless at very long intervals, it should not be 
surprising that they sometimes omit circumstances that are 
quite as veracious as anything they do actually utter to the 
world. No argument, therefore, can justly be urged against 
the incidents of this story, on account of the circumstance of 
their not being embodied in the regular marine news of the 
day. 

Another serious objection on the part of the American 
reader to this work is foreseen. The author has endeavored to 
interest his readers in occurrences of a date aS antiquated as 
two years can make them, when he is quite aware, that, in order 
to keep pace with a state of society in which there was no yes- 
terday, it would have been much safer to anticipate things, by 
laying his scene two years in advance. It is hoped, however, 
that the public sentiment will not be outraged by this glimpse 
at antiquity, and this the more so, as the sequel of the tale 
will bring down events within a year of the present moment. 

Previously to the appearance of that sequel, however, it 
may be well to say a few words concerning the fifrtunes of 
some of our characters , as it might be e?i attendaiii. 

To commence with the most important : the Montauk her- 
self, once deemed so “ splendid ” and convenient, is already 
supplanted in the public favor by a new ship ; the reign of a 
popular packet, a popular preacher, or a popular anything-else, 
in America, being limited by a national esprit de corps, to a time 
materially shorter than that of a lustre. This, however, is no 
more than just ; rotation in favor being as evidently a matter 
of constitutional necessity, as rotation in office. 

Captain Truck, for a novelty, continues popular, a circum- 
stance that he himself ascribes to the fact of his being still a 
bachelor. 

Toast is promoted, figuring at the head of a pantry quite 
equal to tfiat of his great master, who regards his improvement 


PREFACE. 


5 


with some such eyes as Charles the Twelfth of Sweden re- 
garded that of his great rival Peter, after the affair of Pultowa. 

Mr. Leach now smokes his own cigar, and issues his own 
orders from a monkey rail, his place in the line being supplied 
by his former “ Dickey.” He already speaks of his great 
model, as of one a little antiquated, it is true, but as a man 
who had merit in his time, though it was not the particular 
merit that is in fashion to day. 

Notwithstanding these little changes, which are perhaps 
inseparable from the events of a period so long as two years in 
a country as energetic as America, and in which nothing seems 
to be stationary but the ages of Tontine nominees and three- 
life leases, a cordial esteem was created among the principal 
actors in the events of this book, which is likely to outlast the 
passage, and which will not fail to bring most of them together 
again in the sequel. 

April, 1838. 







9 


HOMEWARD BOUND 


CHAPTER I. 

An inner room I have, 

Where thou shalt rest and some refreshment take, 

And then we will more fully talk of this. 

Orra. 

The coast of England, though infinitely finer than our own, 
is more remarkable for its verdure, and for a general appear- 
ance of civilization, than for its natural beauties. The chalky 
cliffs may seem bold and noble to the American, though com- 
pared to the granite piles that buttress the Mediterranean they 
are but mole-hills ; and the travelled eye seeks beauties 
instead, in the retiring vales, the leafy hedges, and the cluster- 
ing towns that dot the teeming island. Neither is Portsmouth 
a very favorable specimen of a British port, considered solely 
in reference to the picturesque. A town situated on a humble 
point, and fortified after the manner of the Low Countries, 
with an excellent haven, suggests more images of the useful 
than of the pleasing ; while a background of modest receding 
hills offers little beyond the verdant swales of the country. In 
this respect England itself has the fresh beauty of youth, 
rather than the mellowed hues of a more advanced period of 
life ; or it might be better to say, it has the young freshness 
and retiring sweetness that distinguish her females, as com- 
pared with the warmer tints of Spain and Italy, and which, 
women and landscape alike, need the near view to be appre- 
ciated. 

Some such thoughts as these passed through the mind of 


8 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


the traveller who stood on the deck of the packet Montauk, 
resting an elbow on the quarter-deck rail, as he contemplated 
the view of the coast that stretched before him east and west 
for leagues. The manner in which this gentleman, whose 
temples were sprinkled with gray hairs, regarded the scene, 
denoted more of the thoughtfulness of experience, and of 
taste improved by observation, than it is usual to meet amid 
the bustling and commonplace characters that compose the 
majority in almost every situation of life. The calmness of his 
exterior, an air removed equally from the admiration of the 
novice and the superciliousness of the tyro, had, indeed, so 
strongly distinguished him from the moment he embarked in 
London to that in which he was now seen in the position men- 
tioned, that several of the seamen swore he was a man-of-war’s- 
man in disguise. The fair-haired, lovely, blue-eyed girl at his 
side, too, seemed a softened reflection of all his sentiment, 
intelligence, knowledge, tastes, and cultivation, united to the 
artlessness and simplicity that became her sex and years. 

“ We have seen nobler coasts, Eve,” said the gentleman, 
pressing the arm that leaned on his own ; “ but, after all, 
England will always be fair to American eyes.” 

More particularly so if those eyes first opened to the 
light in the eighteenth century, father.” 

“ You, at least, my child, have been educated beyond the 
reach of national foibles, whatever may have been my own 
evil fortune ; and still, I think even you have seen a great deal 
to admire in this country, as well as in this coast.” 

Eve Effingham glanced a moment towards the eye of her 
father, and perceiving that he spoke in playfulness, without 
suffering a cloud to shadow a countenance that usually varied 
with her emotions, stie continued the discourse, which had, 
in fact, only been resumed by the remark first mentioned. 

“ I have been educated, as it is termed, in so many dif- 
ferent places and countries,” returned Eve, smiling, “ that I 
sometimes fancy I was born a woman, like my great prede- 
cessor and namesake, the mother of Abel. If a congress of 
nations, in the way of masters, can make one independent of 
prejudice, I may claim to possess the advantage. My greatest 
fear is, that in acquiring liberality '* have acquired nothing 
else.” 

Mr. Effingham turned a look of parental fondness, in which 
parental pride was clearly mingled, on the face of his daughter, 
and said with his eyes, though his tongue did not second the 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


9 

expression, “ This is a fear, sweet one, that none besides thy- 
self would feel.” 

> “ A congress of nations, truly ! ” muttered another male 
voice near the father and daughter. “ You have been taught 
music in general, by seven masters of as many different states, 
besides the touch of the guitar by a Spaniard ; Greek by a 
German ; the living tongues by the European powers, and 
philosophy by seeing the world ; and now, with a brain full of 
learning, fingers full of touches, eyes full of tints, and a per- 
son full of grace, your father is taking you back to America, to 
‘ waste your sweetness on the desert air.’ ” 

“ Poetically expressed, if not justly imagined, cousin Jack,” 
returned the laughing Eve ; “ but you have forgot to add, and 
a heart full of feeling for the land of my birth.” 

“ We shall see, in the end.” 

“ In the end, as in the beginning, now and for evermore.” 

“ All love is eternal in the commencement.” 

“ Do you make no allowance for the constancy of woman ? 
Think you that a girl of twenty can forget the country of her 
birth, the land of her forefathers — or, as you call it yourself 
when in a good humor, the land of liberty ? ” 

“ A pretty specimen you will have of its liberty ! ” returned 
the cousin sarcastically. “ After having passed a girlhood of 
wholesome restraint in the rational society of Europe, you are 
about to return home to the slavery of American female life, 
just as you are about to be married.” 

“ Married ! Mr. Effingham? ” 

“ 1 suppose the catastrophe will arrive, sooner or later ; and 
it is more likely to occur to a girl of twenty than to a girl of 
ten.” 

“ Mr. John Effingham never lost an argument for the want 
of a convenient fact, my love,” the father observed by way of 
bringing the brief discussion to a close. “ But here are the 
boats approaching ; let us withdraw a little and examine the 
chance medley of faces with which we are to become familiar 
by the intercourse of a month.” 

“ You will be much more likely to agree on a verdict of 
murder,” muttered the-ki Iman. 

Mr. Effingham led his daughter into the hurricane-house — ■ 
or, as the packet-men quaintly term it, the coach-house, where 
they stood watching the movements on the quarterdeck for the 
next half hour ; an interval of which we shall take advantage 
to touch in a few of the stronger lights of our picture, leaving 


IO 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


the softer tints and the shadows to be discovered by the man- 
ner in which the artist “ tells the story.” 

Edward and John Effingham, were brothers’ children ; were 
born on the same day; had passionately loved the same woman, 
who had preferred the first-named, and died soon after Eve was 
born ; had, notwithstanding this collision in feeling, remained 
sincere friends, and this the more so, probably, from a mutual 
and natural sympathy in their common loss ; had lived much 
together at home, and travelled much together abroad, and 
were now about to return in company to the land of their birth, 
after what might be termed an absence of twelve years ; though 
both had visited America for short periods in the intervals, — 
John not less than five times. 

There was a strong family likeness between the cousins, 
their persons and even features being almost identical ; though 
it was scarcely possible for two human beings to leave more 
opposite impressions on mere casual spectators when seen 
separately. Both were tall, of commanding presence, and 
handsome ; while one was winning in appearance, and the 
other, if not positively forbidding, at least distant and repulsive. 
The noble outline of face in Edward Effingham had got to be 
cold severity in that of John; the aquiline nose of the latter, 
seeming to possess an eagle-like and hostile curvature, — his 
compressed lip, sarcastic and cold expression, and the fine 
classical chin, a feature in which so many of the Saxon race 
fail, a haughty scorn that caused strangers usually to avoid him. 
Eve drew with great facility and truth, and she had an eye, as 
her cousin had rightly said, “ full of tints.” Often and often 
had she sketched both of these loved faces, and never without 
wondering wherein that strong difference existed in nature 
which she had never been able to impart to her drawings. The 
truth is, that the subtle character of John Effingham’s face 
would have puzzled the skill of one who had made the art his 
study for a life, and it utterly set the graceful but scarcely pro- 
found knowledge of the beautiful young painter at defiance. 
All the points of character that rendered her father so amiable 
and so winning, and which were rather felt than perceived, in 
his cousin were salient and bold, and if it may be thus ex- 
pressed, had become indurated by mental suffering and disap- 
pointment. 

The cousins were both rich, though in wavs as opposite as 
their dispositions and habits of thought. Edward Effingham 
possessed a large hereditary property, that brought a good in- 
come, and which attached him to this world of ours by kindly 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


i 


feelings towards its land and water ; while John, much the 
wealthier of the two, having' inherited a large commercial for- 
tune, did not own ground enough to bury him. As he some- 
times deridingly said, he “ kept his gold in corporations, that 
were as soulless as himself.” 

Still, John Effingham was a man of cultivated mind, of ex- 
tensive intercourse with the world, and of manners that varied 
with the occasion ; or perhaps it were better to say with his 
humors. In all these particulars but the latter the cousins 
were alike ; Edward Effingham’s deportment being as equal as 
liis temper, though also distinguished for a knowledge of 
society. 

These gentlemen had embarked at London, on their fiftieth 
birthday, in the packet of the ist of October, bound to New 
York ; the lands and family residence of the proprietor lying 

in the state of that, name, of which all of the parties were 

natives. It is not usual for the cabin passengers of the Lon- 
don packets to embark in the docks ; but Mr. Effingham, — as 
we shall call the father in general, to distinguish him from the 
bachelor, John,- — as an old and experienced traveller, had 
determined to make his daughter familiar with the peculiar 
odors of the vessel in smooth water, as a. protection against 
sea-sickness ; a malady, however, from which she proved to be 
singularly exempt in the end. They had, accordingly, been on 
board three days, when the ship came to an anchor off Ports- 
mouth, the point where the remainder of the passengers were 

to join her on that particular day when the scene of this tale 
commences. 

At this precise moment, then, the Montauk was lying at a 
single anchor, not less than a league from the land, in a flat 
calm, with her three topsails loose, the courses in the brails, 
and with all those signs of preparation about her that are so 
bewildering to landsmen, but which seamen comprehend as 
clearly as words. The captain had no other business there 
than to take on board the wayfarers, and to renew his supply 
of fresh meat and vegetables ; things of so familiar import on 
shore as to be seldom thought of until missed, but which swell 
into importance during a passage of a month’s duration. Eve 
had employed her three days of probation quite usefully, 
having, with the exception of the two gentlemen, the officer of 
the vessel, and one other person, been in quiet possession of 
all the ample, not to say luxurious cabins. . It is true, she had 
a female attendant ; but to her she had been accustomed from 
childhood, and Nanny Sidley, as her quondam nurse and actual 


I2 HOMEWARD BOUND. 

lady’s-maid was termed, appeared so much a part of herself, 
that, while her absence would be missed almost as greatly as 
that of a limb, her presence was as much a matter of course as 
a hand or foot. Nor will a passing word concerning this ex- 
cellent and faithful domestic be thrown away, in the brief pre- 
liminary explanations we are making. 

Ann Sidley was one of those excellent creatures who, it is 
the custom with the European travellers to say, do not exist at 
all in America, and who, while they are certainly less numerous 
than could be wished, have no superiors in the world, in their 
way. She had been born a servant, lived a servant, and was 
quite content to die a servant, — and this, too, in one and the 
same family. We shall not enter into a philosophical examin- 
ation of the reasons that had induced old Ann to feel certain 
she was in the precise situation to render her more happy than 
any other that to her was attainable ; but feel it she did, as 
John Effingham used to express it, “from the crown of her 
head to the sole of her foot.” She had passed through infancy, 
childhood, girlhood, up to womanhood, pari passu , with the 
mother of Eve, having been the daughter of a gardener, who 
died in the service of the family, and had heart enough to feel 
that the mixed relations of civilized society, when properly 
understood and appreciated, are more pregnant of happiness 
than the vulgar scramble and heart-burnings, that in the melee 
of a migrating and unsettled population, are so injurious to the 
grace and principles of American life. At the death of Eve’s 
mother, she had transferred her affections to the child ; and 
twenty years of assiduity and care had brought her to feel as 
much tenderness for her lovely young charge as if she had been 
her natural parent. But Nanny Sidley was better fitted to care 
for the body than the mind of Eve ; and when, at the age of 
ten, the latter was placed under the control of an accomplished 
governess, the good woman had meekly and quietly sunk the 
duties of the nurse into those of the maid. 

One of the severest trials — or “ crosses,” as she herself 
termed it — that poor Nanny had ever experienced, was endured 
when Eve began to speak in a language she could not herself 
comprehend ; for, in despite of the best intentions in the world, 
and twelve years of use, the good woman could never make 
anything of the foreign tongues her young charge was so rap- 
idly acquiring. One day, when Eve had been maintaining an 
animated and laughing- discourse in Italian with her instruc- 
tress, Nanny, unable to command herself, had actually caught 
the child to her bosom, and, bursting into tears, implored her 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


*3 


not to estrange herself entirely from her poor old nurse. The 
caresses and solicitations of Eve soon brought the good woman 
to a sense of her weakness ; but the natural feeling was so 
strong, that it required years of close observation to reconcile 
her to the thousand excellent qualities of Mademoiselle Vief- 
ville, the lady to whose superintendence the education of Miss 
Effingham had been finally confided. 

This Mademoiselle Viefville was also among the passen- 
gers, and was the one other person who now occupied the 
cabins in common with Eve and her friends. She was the 
daughter of a French officer who had fallen in Napoleon’s cam- 
paigns, had been educated at one of those admirable estab- 
lishments which form points of relief in the ruthless history of 
the conqueror, and had now lived long enough to have edu- 
cated two young persons, the last of whom was Eve Effingham. 
Twelve years of close communion with her eleve had created 
sufficient attachment to cause her to yield to the solicitations 
of the father to accompany his daughter to America, and to 
continue with her during the first year of her probation, in a 
state of society that the latter felt must be altogether novel to 
a young woman educated as his own child had been. 

So much has been written and said of French governesses, 
that we shall not anticipate the subject, but leave this lady to 
speak and act for herself in the course of the narrative. Nei- 
ther is it our intention to be very minute in these introductory 
remarks concerning any of our characters ; but having thus 
traced their outlines, we shall return again to the incidents as 
they occurred, trusting to make the reader better acquainted 
with all the parties as we proceed. 


CHAPTER II. 

Lord Cram and Lord Vultur, 

Sir Brandish O’Cultur, 

With Marshal Carouzer, 

And old Lady Mouser 

Bath Guide. 

The assembling of the passengers of a packet-ship is at all 
times a matter of interest to the parties concerned. During 
the western passage in particular, which can never safely be 
set down at less than a month, there is the prospect of being 
shut up for the whole of that period, within the narrow compass 


14 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


of a ship, with those whom chance has brought together, in- 
fluenced by all the accidents and caprices of personal charac- 
ter, and a difference of nations, conditions in life, and educa- 
tion. The quarter-deck, it is true, forms a sort of local 
distinction, and the poor creatures in the steerage seem the 
rejected of Providence for the time being ; but all who know 
life will readily comprehend that the pcle-mcle of the cabins can 
seldom offer anything very enticing to people of refinement and 
taste. Against this evil, however, there is one particular 
source of relief ; most persons feeling a disposition to yield to 
the circumstances in which they are placed, with the laudable 
and convenient desire to render others comfortable, in order 
that they may be made comfortable themselves. 

A man of the world and a gentleman, Mr. Effingham had 
looked forward to this passage with a good deal of concern, on 
account of his daughter, while he shrank with the sensitiveness 
of his habits from the necessity of exposing one of her delicacy 
and plastic simplicity to the intercourse of a ship. Accompanied 
by Mademoiselle Viefville, watched over by Nanny, and guarded 
by himself and his kinsman, he had lost some of his apprehen- 
sions on the subject during the three pobationary days, and 
now took his stand in the centre of his own party to observe 
the new arrivals, with something of the security of a man who 
is entrenched in his own door-way. 

The place they occupied, at the window of the hurricane- 
house, did not admit of a view of the water ; but it was suffi- 
ciently evident from the preparations in the gangway next the 
land, that boats were so near as to render that unnecessary. 

“ Genus , cockney; species , bagman,” muttered John Effing- 
ham, as the first arrival touched the deck. “That worthy has 
merely exchanged the basket of a coach for the deck of a 
packet ; we may now learn the price of buttons.” 

It did not require a naturalist to detect the species of the 
stranger, in truth ; though John Effingham had been a little 
more minute in his description than was warranted by the fact. 
The person in. question was one of those mercantile agents that 
England scatters so profusely over the world, some of whom 
have all the most sterling qualities of their nation, though a 
majority, perhaps, are a little disposed to mistake the value of 
other people as well as their own. This wasth q genus, as John 
Effingham had expressed it ; but the species will best appear on 
dissection. The master of the ship saluted this person cordially, 
and as an old acquaintance, by the name of Monday. 

“ A mousquetaire resuscitated,” said Mademoiselle Viefville, 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


15 


in her broken English, as one who had come in the same boat 
as the first-named, thrust his whiskered and mustachoed visage 
above the rail of the gangway. 

“ More probably a barber, who has converted his own head 
into a wig-block,” growled John Effingham. 

“ It cannot, surely, be Wellington in disguise ! ” added Mr. 
Effingham, with a sarcasm of manner that was' quite unusual 
for him. 

“ Or a peer of the realm in his robes ! ” whispered Eve, who 
was much amused with the elaborate toilet of the subject of 
their remarks, who descended the ladder supported by a sailor, 
and, after speaking to the master, was formally presented to his 
late boat-companion, as Sir George Templemore. The two 
bustled together about the quarter-deck for a few minutes, using 
eye-glasses, which led them into several scrapes, by causing 
them to hit their legs against sundry objects they might have 
avoided, though both were much too high-bred to betray 
feelings — or fancied they were, which answered the same pur- 
pose. 

After these flourishes, the new comers descended to the 
cabin in company, not without pausing to survey the party in 
the hurricane-house, more especially Eve, who, to old Ann’s 
great scandal, was the subject of their manifest and almost 
•avowed admiration and observation. 

“ One is rather glad to have such a relief against the 
tediousness of a sea-passage,” said Sir George as they went down 
the ladder. “ No doubt you are used to this sort of thing, Mr. 
Monday ; but with me, it is voyage the first, — that is, if I ex- 
cept the Channel and the seas one encounters in making the 
usual run on the Continent.” 

“ Oh, dear me ! I go and come as regularly as the equinoxes, 
Sir George, which you know is quite, in rule, once a year. I 
call my passages the equinoxes, too, for I religiously make it 
a practice to pass just twelve hours out of the twenty-four in 
my berth.” 

This was the last the party on deck heard of the opinions of 
the two worthies, for the time being ; nor would they have been 
favored with all this, had not Mr. Monday what he thought a 
rattling way with him, which caused him usually to speak in an 
octave above every one else. Although their voices were nearly 
mute, or rather lost to those above, they were heard knocking 
about in their state-rooms ; and Sir George, in particular, as 
frequently called out for the steward, by the name of “ Saun- 


i6 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


ders,” as Mr. Monday made similar appeals to the steward’s 
assistant for succor, by the appropriate appellation of “ Toast.” 

“ I think we may safely claim this person, at least, for a 
countryman,” said John Effingnam : “ he is what I have heard 
termed an American in a European mask.” 

“ The character is more ambitiously conceived than skil- 
fully maintained,” replied Eve, who had need of all her rete?iue 
of manner to abstain from laughing outright. “Were I to 
hazard a conjecture, it would be to describe the gentleman as 
a collector of costumes, who had taken a fancy to exhibit an 
assortment of his riches on his own person. Mademoiselle 
Viefville, you, who so well understand costumes, may tell us 
from what countries the separate parts of that attire have been 
collected ? ” 

“ I can answer for the shop in Berlin where the travelling 
cap was purchased,” returned the amused governess ; “ in no 
other part of the world can a parallel be found.” 

“ I should think, ma’am,” put in Nanny, with the quiet 
simplicity of her nature as well as of her habits, “ that the 
gentleman must have bought his boots in Paris, for they seem 
to pinch his feet, and all the Paris boots and shoes pinch one’s 
feet, — at least, all mine did.” 

“ The watch-guard is stamped ‘ Geneva,’ ” continued 
Eve. 

“The coat comes from Frankfort: c est une equivoque” 

“ And the pipe from Dresden, Mademoiselle Viefville.” 

“ The conchiglia savors of Rome, and the little chain an- 
nexed bespeaks the Rialto ; while the moustaches are anything 
, but indigenes , and the tout ensemble the world : the man is trav- 
elled, at least.” 

Eve’s eyes sparkled with humor as she said this : while 
the new passenger, who had been addressed as Mr. Dodge, 
and as an old acquaintance also, by the captain, came so near 
them as to admit of no further comments. A short conversation 
between the two soon let the listeners into the secret that the 
traveller had come from America in the spring, whither, after 
having made the tour of Europe, he was about to return in the 
autumn. 

“ Seen enough, ha ! ” added the captain with a friendly nod 
of the head, when the other had finished a brief summary of 
his proceedings in the eastern hemisphere. “ All eyes, and no 
leisure or inclination for more ? ” 

“ I’ve seen as much as I warni to see,” returned the travel- 
ler, with an emphasis on, and a pronunciation of, the word we 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


*7 

have italicized, that cannot be committed to paper, but which 
were eloquence itself on the subject of self-satisfaction and 
self-knowledge. 

“ Well, that is the main point. When a man has got all he 
wants of a thing, any addition is like over-ballast. Whenever 
I can get fifteen knots out of the ship, I make it a point to be 
satisfied, especially under close-reefed topsails and on a taut 
bow-line.” 

The traveller and the master nodded their heads at each ‘ 
other, like men who understood more than they expressed ; 
when the former, after inquiring with marked interest if his 
room-mate, Sir George Templemore, had arrived, went below. 
An intercourse of three days had established something like 
an acquaintance between the latter and the passengers 
she had brought from the River, and turning his red 
quizzical face towards the ladies, he observed with inimitable 
gravity,— 

“ There is nothing like understanding when one has enough, 
even if it be of knowledge. I never yet met with the navigator 
who found two ‘ noons ’ in the same day, that he was not in 
danger of shipwreck. Now I daresay, Mr. Dodge there, who 
has just gone below, has, as he says, seen all he warnts to see, 
and it is quite likely he knows more already than he can clever- 
ly get along with. — Let the people be getting the booms on the 
yards, Mr. Leach ; we shall be warnting to spread our wings 
before the end of the passage.” 

As Captain Truck, though he often swore, seldom laughed, 
his mate gave the necessary order with a gravity equal to that 
with which it had been delivered to him ; and even the sailors 
went aloft to execute it with greater alacrity for an indulgence 
of humor that was peculiar to their trade, and which, as few 
understood it so well, none enjoyed so much as themselves. 
As the homeward-bound crew was the same as the outward 
bound, and Mr. Dodge had come abroad quite as green as he 
was now going home ripe, this traveller of six months’ finish did 
not escape divers commentaries that literally cut him up “ from 
clew to ear-ring,” and which flew about in the rigging much as 
active birds flutter from branch to branch in a tree. The subject 
of all this wit, however, remained profoundly, not to say hap- 
pily, ignorant of the sensation he had produced, being occupied 
in disposing of the Dresden pipe, the Venetian chain, and the 
Roman conchiglia in his state-room, and in “ instituting an ac- 
quaintance,” as he expressed it, with his room-mate, Sir George 
Templemore. 


i8 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


“ We must surely have something better than this,” observed 
Mr. Effingham, “ for I observed that two of the staterooms in 
the main cabin are taken singly.” 

In order that the general reader may understand this, it 
may be well to explain that the packet ships have usually two 
berths in each stateroom, but they who can afford to pay an 
extra charge are permitted to occupy the little apartment 
singly. It is scarcely necessary to add, that persons of gentle- 
manly feeling, when circumstances will at all permit, prefer 
economizing in other things in order to live by themselves for 
the month usually consumed in the passage, since in nothing 
is refinement more plainly exhibited than in the reserve of 
personal habits. 

“ There is no lack of vulgar fools stirring with full pockets,” 
rejoined -John Effingham ; “ the two rooms you mention may 
have been taken by some ‘ yearling ’ travellers, who are little 
better than the semi-annual savant who has just passed us.” 

“ It is at least something, cousin Jack, to have the wishes of 
a gentleman.” 

“ It is something, Eve, though it end in wishes, or even in 
caricature.” 

“ What are the names ? ” pleasantly asked Mademoiselle 
Viefville ; “ the names may be a clue to the characters.” 

“ The papers pinned to the bed-curtains bear the antithet- 
ical titles of Mr. x Sharp and Mr. Blunt; though it is quite 
probable the first is wanting of a letter or two by accident, and 
the last is merely a synonyme of the old nom de guerre 1 Cash.’ ” 

“ Do persons, then, actually travel with borrowed names in 
our days ? ” asked Eve, with a little of the curiosity of the com- 
mon mother whose name she bore. 

“ That do they, and with borrowed money too, as well as in 
other days. I dare say, however, these two co-voyagers of ours 
will come just as they are, in truth, Sharp enough, and Blunt 
enough.” 

“ Are they Americans, think you ? ” 

“ They ought to be ; both the qualities being thoroughly 
indigenes, as Mademoiselle Viefville would say.” 

“Nay, cousin John, I will bandy words with you no longer;, 
for the last twelve months you have done little else than try to^ 
lessen the joyful anticipations with which I return to the home' 
of my childhood.” 

“ Sweet one, I would not willingly lessen one of thy young 
and generous pleasures by any of the alloy of my own bitter- 
ness ; but what wilt thou ? A little preparation for that which 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


*9 

is as certain to follow as that the sun succeeds the dawn, will 
rather soften the disappointment thou art doomed to feel.” 

Eve had only time to cast a look of affectionate gratitude 
towards him, — for whilst he spoke tauntingly, he spoke with a 
feeling that her experience from childhood had taught her to 
appreciate, — ere the arrival of another boat drew the common 
attention to the gangway. A call from the officer in attendance 
brought the captain to the rail ; and his order “ to pass in the 
luggage of Mr. Sharp and Mr. Blunt,” was heard by all near. 

“ Now for les indigenes ,” whispered Mademoiselle Viefville, 
with the nervous excitement that is a little apt to so betray a 
lively expectation in the gentler sex. 

Eve smiled, for there are situations in which trifles help to 
awaken interest, and the little that had just passed served to 
excite curiosity in the whole party. Mr. Effingham thought it 
a favorable symptom that the master, who had had interviews 
with all his passengers in London, walked to the gangway to 
receive the new comers ; for a boat load of the quarter-deck oi 
fiolloi had come on board a moment before without any other 
notice on his part than a general bow, with the usual order to 
receive their effects. 

“The delay denotes Englishmen,” the caustic John had 
time to throw in, before the silent arrangement at the gangway 
was interrupted by the appearance of the passengers. 

The quiet smile of Mademoiselle Viefville, as the two trav- 
ellers appeared on deck, denoted approbation, for her practised 
eve detected at a glance, that both were certainly gentlemen. 
Women are more purely creatures of convention in their way 
than men, their education inculcating nicer distinctions and 
discriminations than that of the other sex ; and Eve, who would 
have studied Sir George Templemore and Mr. Dodge as she 
would have studied the animals of a caravan, or as creatures 
with whom she had no affinities, after casting a sly look of cu- 
riosity at the two who now appeared on deck, unconsciously 
averted her eyes like a well-bred young person in a drawing- 
room. 

“They are indeed English,” quietly remarked Mr. Effing- 
ham ; “ but, out of question, English gentlemen.” 

“ The one nearest appears to me to be Continental,” an- 
swered Mademoiselle Viefville, who had not felt the same im- 
pulse to avert her look as Eve ; “ he is jamais Anglais /” 

Eve stole a glance in spite of herself, and, with the intuitive 
penetration of a woman, intimated that she had come to the 
same conclusion. The two strangers were both tall, and de- 


20 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


cidedly gentleman-like young men, whose personal appearance 
would cause either to be remarked. The one whom the cap- 
tain addressed as Mr. Sharp had the most youthful look, his 
complexion being florid, and his hair light ; though the other 
was altogether superior in outline of feature as well as in ex- 
pression ; indeed, Mademoiselle Yiefville fancied she never 
saw a sweeter smile than that he gave on returning the salute 
of the deck ; there was more than the common expression of 
suavity and of the usual play of features in it, for it struck her 
as being thoughtful and as almost melancholy. His companion 
was gracious in his manner, and perfectly well toned ; but his 
demeanor had less of the soul of the man about it, partaking 
more of the training of the social caste to which it belonged. 
These may seem to be nice distinctions for the circumstances ; 
but Mademoiselle Viefville had passed her life in good com- 
pany, and under responsibilities that had rendered observation 
and judgment highly necessary, and particularly observations 
of the other sex. 

Each of the strangers had a servant ; and while their lug- 
gage was passed up from the boat, they walked aft nearer to 
the hurricane-house, accompanied by the captain. Every 
American, who is not very familiar with the world, appears to 
possess the mania of introducing. Captain Truck was no ex- 
ception to the rule ; for, while he was perfectly acquainted with 
a ship, and knew the etiquette of the quarter-deck to a hair, 
he got into blue water the moment he approached the finesse 
of deportment. He was exactly of that school of elegants who 
fancy drinking a glass of wine with another, and introducing, 
are touches of breeding ; it being altogether beyond his com- 
prehension that both have especial uses, and are only to be re- 
sorted to on especial occasions. Still, the worthy master, who 
had begun life on the forecastle, without any previous knowl- 
edge of usages, and who had imbibed the notion that “ man- 
ners make the man,” taken in the narrow sense of the axiom, 
was a devotee of what he fancied to be good breeding, and one 
of his especial duties, as he imagined, in order to put his pas- 
sengers at their ease, was to introduce them to each other; a 
proceeding which, it is hardly necessary to say, had just a con- 
trary effect with the better class of them. 

“You are acquainted gentlemen?” he said, as the three 
approached the party in the hurricane-hoi se. 

The two travellers endeavored to look interested, while Mr. 
Sharp carelessly observed that they had met for the first time 
in the boat. This was delightful intelligence to Captain Truck, 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


21 


who did not lose a moment in turning it to account. Stopping 
short, he faced his companions, and, with a solemn wave of the 
hand, he went through the ceremonial in which he most de- 
lighted, and in which he piqued himself at being an adept. 

“ Mr. Sharp, permit me to introduce you to Mr. Blunt , — 
Mr. Blunt, let me make you acquainted with Mr. Sharp.” 

The gentlemen, though taken a little by surprise at the dig- 
nity and formality of the captain, touched their hats civilly to 
each other, and smiled. Eve, not a little amused at the scene, 
watched the whole procedure ; and then she too detected the 
sweet melancholy of the one expression, and the marble-like 
irony of the other. It may have been this that caused her to 
start, though almost imperceptibly, and to color. 

“ Our turn will come next,” muttered John Effingham ; “get 
the grimaces ready.” 

His conjecture was right ; for, hearing his voice without 
understanding the words, the captain followed up his advantage 
to his own infinite gratification. 

“ Gentlemen, — Mr. Effingham, Mr. John Effingham ” — 
(everyone soon came to make this distinction in addressing 
the cousins) — “ Miss Effingham, Mademoiselle Viefville ; 
— Mr. Sharp, Mr. Blunt, ladies ; — gentlemen, Mr. Blunt, Mr. 
Sharp.” 

The dignified bow of Mr. Effingham, as well as the faint 
and distant smile of Eve, would have repelled any undue 
familiarity in men of less tone than either of the strangers, both 
of whom received the unexpected honor like those who felt 
themselves to be intruders. As Mr. Sharp raised his hat to 
Eve, however, he held it suspended a moment above his head, 
and then dropping his arm to its full length, he bowed with 
profound respect, though distantly. Mr. Blunt was less 
elaborate in his salute, but as pointed as the circumstances at 
all required. Both gentlemen were a little struck with the 
distant hauteur of John Effingham, whose bow, while it fulfilled 
all the outward forms, was what Eve used laughingly to term 
“ imperial.” The bustle of preparation, and the certainty 
that there would be no want of opportunities to renew the in- 
tercourse, prevented more than the general salutations, and the 
new-comers descended to their staterooms. 

“ Did you remark the manner in which those people took 
my introduction ?” asked Captain Truck of his chief mate, 
whom he was training up in the ways of packet politeness, 
as one in the road of preferment. “Now, to my notion, 


22 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


■they might have shook hands at least. That’s what I call 
Vat tel” 

“ One sometimes falls in with what are ru?n chaps,” re- 
turned the other, who, from following the London trade, had 
caught a few cockneyisms. “ If a man chooses to keep his 
hands in the beckets, why let him, say I ; but I take it as a 
slight to the company to sheer out of the usual track in such 
matters.” 

“ I was thinking as much myself ; but after all, what can 
packet-masters do in such a case ? We can set luncheon and 
dinner before the passengers, but we can’t make them eat. 
Nowf, my rule is, when a gentleman introduces me, to do the 
thing handsomely, and to return shake for shake, if it is three 
times three ; but as for a touch of the beaver, it is like setting 
a top-gallant sail in passing a ship at sea, and means just 
nothing at all. Who would know a vessel because he has let 
run his halyards and swayed the yard up again ? One would 
do as much to a Turk for manners’ sake. No, no ! there is 

something in this, and, d me, just to make sure of it, the 

first good opportunity that offers, I’ll — ay, I’ll just introduce 
them all over again ! — Let the people ship their handspikes, Mr. 
Leach, and heave in the slack of the chain. — Ay, ay! I’ll take 
an opportunity when all hands are on deck, and introduce them, 
shipshape, one by one, as your greenhorns go through a lubber’s- 
hole, or we shall have no friendship during the passage.” 

The mate nodded approbation, as if the other had hit upon 
the right expedient, and then he proceeded to obey the orders, 
while the cares of his vessel soon drove the subject temporarily 
from the mind of his commander. 


CHAPTER III. 

By all description, this should be the place. 

Who’s here ? — Speak, ho ! — No answer What is this ? 

Timon of Athens. 

A ship with her sails loosened and her ensign abroad is 
always a beautiful object ; and the Montauk, a noble New- 
York-built vessel of seven hundred tons burthen, was a first- 
class specimen of the “ kettle-bottom ” school of naval archi- 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


2 3 


tecture, wanting in nothing that the taste and experience of 
the day can supply. The scene that was now acting before 
their eyes therefore soon diverted the thoughts of Mademoiselle 
Viefville and Eve from the introductions of the captain, both 
watching with intense interest the various movements of the 
crew and passengers as they passed in review. 

A crowd of well-dressed, but of an evidently humbler class 
of persons than those farther aft, were thronging the gangways, 
little dreaming of the physical suffering they were to endure 
before they reached the land of promise, — that distant America, 
towards which the poor and oppressed of nearly all nations turn 
longing eyes in quest of a. shelter. Eve saw with wonder aged 
men and women among them ; beings who werfe about to sever 
most of the ties of the world in order to obtain j^lief from the' 
physical pains and privations that had borne hard on them for 
more than threescore years. A few had made sacrifices of 
themselves in obedience to that mysterious instinct which man 
feels in his offspring; while others, again, went rejoicing, 
flushed with the hope of their vigor and youth. Some, the vic- 
tims of their vices, had embarked in the idle expectation that 
a change of scene, with increased means of indulgence, could 
produce a healthful change of character. All had views that 
the truth would have dimmed, and, perhaps, no single adven- 
turer among the emigrants collected in that ship entertained 
either sound or reasonable notions of the mode in which his 
step was to be rewarded, though many may meet with a success 
that will surpass their brightest picture of the future. More, no 
doubt, were to be disappointed. 

Reflections something like these passed through the mind 
of Eve Effingham, as she examined the mixed crowd, in which 
some were' busy in receiving stores from boats ; others in 
holding party conferences with friends, in which a few were 
weeping ; here and there a group were drowning reflection in 
the parting cup; while wondering children looked up with 
anxiety into the well-known faces, as if fearful they might lose 
the countenances they loved, and the charities on which they 
habitually relied, in such a melee. 

Although the stern discipline which separates the cabin and 
steerage passengers into castes as distinct as those of the 
Hindoos had not yet been established, Captain Truck had too 
profound a sense of his duty to permit the quarterdeck to be 
unceremoniously invaded. This part of the ship, then, had 
partially escaped the confusion of the moment ; though trunks, 
boxes, hampers, and other similar appliances of travelling, 


24 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


were scattered about in tolerable affluence. Profiting by the 
space, of which there was still sufficient for the purpose, most 
of the party left the hurricane-house to enjoy the short walk 
that a ship affords. At that instant, another boat from the 
land reached the vessel’s side, and a grave-looking personage, 
who was not disposed to lessen his dignity by levity or an 
omission of forms, appeared on deck, where he demanded to 
be shown the master. An introduction was unnecessary in this 
instance ; for Captain Truck no sooner saw his visitor than he 
recognized the well-known features and solemn pomposity of a 
civil officer of Portsmouth, who was often employed to search 
the American packets, in pursuit of delinquents of all degrees of 
crime and folly. 

“ I had just come to the opinion I was not to have the 
pleasure of seeing you this passage, Mr. Grab,” said the 
captain, shaking hands familiarly with the myrmidon of the 
law ; “ but the turn of the tide is not more regular than you 
gentlemen who come in the name of the king. Mr. Grab, Mr. 
Dodge ; Mr. Dodge, Mr Grab. And now, to what forgery, or 
bigamy, or elopement, or scandalum magnatum , do I owe the 
honor of your company this time ? — Sir George Templemore, 
Mr. Grab ; Mr. Grab, Sir George Templemore.” 

Sir George bowed with the dignified aversion an honest 
man might be supposed to feel for one of the other’s employ- 
ment ; while Mr. Grab looked gravely and with a counter dig- 
nity at Sir George. The business of the officer, however, was 
with none in the cabin ; but he had come in quest of a young 
woman who had married a suitor rejected by her uncle, — an 
arrangement that was likely to subject the latter to a settle- 
ment of accounts which he found inconvenient, and which he 
had thought it prudent to anticipate by bringing an action of 
debt against the bridegroom for advances, real or pretended, 
made to the wife during her nonage. A dozen eager ears 
caught an outline of this tale as it was communicated to the 
captain, and in an incredibly short space of time it was known 
throughout the ship, with not a few embellishments. 

“ I do not know the person of the husband,” continued 
the officer, “ nor indeed does the attorney who is with me in the 
boat ; but his name is Robert Davis, and you can have no 
difficulty in pointing him out. We know him to be in the ship.” 

“ I never introduce any steerage passengers, mv dear sir ; 
and there is no such person in the cabin, I give you my honor, 
— and that is a pledge that must pass between gentlemen like 
us. You are welcome to search, but the duty of the vessel 


HOME W A RD BO UND. 


2 5 


must go on. Take your man — but do not detain the ship. Mr. 
Sharp, Mr. Grab ; Mr. Grab, Mr. Sharp. Bear a hand there, 
Mr. Leach, and let us have the slack of the chain as soon as 
possible.” 

There appeared to be what the philosophers call the at- 
traction of repulsion between the parties last introduced, for 
the tall gentlemanly-looking Mr. Sharp eyed the officer with a 
supercilious coldness, neither party deeming much ceremony 
on the occasion necessary. Mr. Grab now summoned his 
assistant, the attorney, from the boat, and there was a consul- 
tation between them as to their further proceedings. Fifty 
heads were grouped around them, and curious eyes watched 
their smallest movements, one of the crowd occasionally disap- 
pearing to report proceedings. 

Man is certainly a clannish animal ; for without knowing any 
thing of the merits of the case, without pausing to inquire into 
the right or the wrong of the matter, in the pure spirit of parti- 
zanship, every man, woman, and child of the steerage, which 
contained fully a hundred souls, took sides against the law, and 
enlisted in the cause of the defendant. All this was done 
quietly, however, for no one menaced or dreamed of violence, 
crew and passengers usually taking their cues from the officers 
of the vessel on such occasions, and those of the Moritauk un- 
derstood too well the rights of the public agents to commit 
themselves in the matter. 

“ Call Robert Davis,” said the officer, resorting to a ruse, by 
affecting an authority he had no right to assume. “ Robert 
Davis,” echoed twenty voices, among which was that of the 
bridegroom himself, who was nigh to discover his secret by an 
excess of zeal. It was easy to call, but no one answered. 

“ Can you tell me which is Robert Davis, my little fellow ? ” 
the officer asked coaxingly,. of a fine flaxen-headed boy, whose 
age did not exceed ten, and who was a curious spectator of 
what passed. “ Tell me which is Robert Davis, and I will give 
you a sixpence.” 

The child knew, but professed ignorance. 

“ C’est an esprit de corps admirable / ” exclaimed Mademoiselle 
Viefville : for the interest of the scene had brought nearly all 
on board, with the exception of those employed in the duty of 
the vessel, near the gangway. “ Ceci est delicieux , and I could 
devour that boy ! ” 

What rendered this more odd, or indeed absolutely ludi- 
crous, was the circumstance that, by a species of legerdemain, 
a whisper had passed among the spectators so stealthily, and 


26 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


yet so soon, that the attorney and his companion were the only 
two on deck who remained ignorant of the person of the man 
they sought. Even the children caught the clue, though they 
had the art to indulge their natural curiosity by glances so sly 
as to escape detection. 

Unfortunately, the attorney had sufficient knowledge of the 
family of the bride to recognize her by a general resemblance,’ 
rendered conspicious as it was by a pallid face and an almost 
ungovernable nervous excitement. He pointed her out to the 
officer, who ordered her to approach him, — a command that 
caused her to burst into tears. The agitation and distress of 
his wife were near proving too much for the prudence of the 
young husband, who was making an impetuous movement to- 
wards her, when the strong grasp of a fellow-passenger checked 
him in time to prevent discovery. It is singular how much is 
understood by trifles when the mind has a clue to the subject, 
and how often signs, that are palpable as day, are overlooked 
when suspicion is not awakened, or when the thoughts have 
obtained a false direction. The attorney and the officer were 
the only two present who had not seen the indiscretion of the 
young man, and who did not believe him betrayed. His wife 
trembled to a degree that almost destroyed the ability to stand ; 
but, casting an imploring look for self-command on her indis- 
creet partner, she controlled her own distress, and advanced 
towards the officer, in obedience to his order, with a power of 
endurance that the strong affections of a woman could alone 
enable her to assume. 

“ If the husband will not deliver himself up, I shall be 
compelled to order the wife to be carried ashore in his stead ! ” 
the attorney coldly remarked, while he applied a pinch of 
snuff to a nose that w r as already saffron-colored from the 
constant use of the w^eed. 

A pause succeeded this ominous declaration, and the crowd 
of passengers betrayed dismay, for all believed there was now 
no hope for the pursued. The wife bowed her head to her 
knees, for she had sunk on a box ,as if to hide the sight of her 
husband’s arrest. At this moment a voice spoke from among 
the group on the quarter-deck. 

“ Is this an arrest for crime, or a demand for debt ? ” 
asked the young man who has been announced as Mr. Blunt. 

There was a quiet authority in the speaker’s manner that 
reassured the failing hopes of the passengers, while it caused 
the attorney and his companion to look round in surprise, and 
perhaps a little in resentment. A dozen eager voices assured 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


27 


“ the gentleman ” there was no crime in the matter at all — 
there was even no just debt, but it was a villanous scheme to 
compel a wronged ward to release a fraudulent guardian from 
his liabilities. Though all this was not very clearly explained, 
it was affirmed with so much zeal and energy as to awaken 
suspicion, and to increase the interest of the more intelligent 
portion of the spectators. The attorney surveyed the travel- 
ling dress, the appearance of fashion, and the youth of his 
interrogator, whose years could not exceed five-and-twenty, 
and his answer was given with an air of superiority. 

“ Debt or crime, it can matter nothing in the eye of the 
law.” 

“ It matters much in the view of an honest man,” re- 
turned the youth with spirit. “ One might hesitate about 
interfering in behalf of a rogue, however ready to exert 
himself in favor of one who is innocent, perhaps, of everything 
but misfortune.” 

“ This looks a little like an attempt at a rescue ! I hope 
we are still in England, and under the protection of English 
laws ? ” 

“ No doubt at all of that, Mr. Seal,” put in the captain, 
who having kept an eye on the officer from a distance, now 
thought it time to interfere, in order to protect the interests of 
his owners. “ Yonder is England, and that is the Isle of 
Wight, and the Montauk has hold of an English Bottom, and 
good anchorage it is ; no one means to dispute your authority, 
Mr. Attorney, nor to call in question that of the king. Mr. 
Blunt merely throws out a suggestion, sir ; or rather, a dis- 
tinction between rogues and honest men ; nothing more, depend 
on it, sir. — Mr. Seal, Mr. Blunt ; Mr. Blunt, Mr. Seal. And a 
thousand pities it is, that the distinction is not more commonly 
made.” 

The young man bowed, slightly, and with a face flushed, 
partly with feeling, and partly at finding himself unexpectedly 
conspicuous, among so many strangers, he advanced a little 
from the quarter-deck group, like one who feels he is required 
to maintain the ground he has assumed. 

“ No one can be disposed to question the supremacy of 
the English laws in this roadstead,” he said, “ and least of 
all myself ; but you will permit me to doubt th‘e legality of 
arresting, or in any manner detaining, a wife in virtue of a 
process issued against the husband.” 

“ A briefless barrister ! ” muttered Seal to Grab. “ I dare 


28 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


say a timely guinea would have silenced the fellow. What 
is now to be done ? ” 

“ The lady must go ashore, and all these matters can be 
arranged before a magistrate.” 

“ Ay, ay ! let her sue out a habeas corpus if she please,” 
added the ready attorney, whom a second survey caused to 
distrust his first inference. “ Justice is blind in England as 
well as in other countries, and is liable to mistakes ; but still 
she is just. If she does mistake sometimes, she is always 
ready to repair the wrong.” 

“ Cannot yon do something here ? ” Eve involuntarily half- 
whispered to Mr. Sharp, who stood at her elbow. 

This person started on hearing her voice making this 
sudden appeal, and glancing a look of intelligence at her, he 
smiled and moved nearer to the principal parties. 

“ Really, Mr. Attorney,” he commenced, “ this appears to 
be rather irregular, I must confess,- — quite out of the ordinary 
way, and it may lead to unpleasant consequences.” 

“ In what manner, sir ? ” interrupted Seal, measuring the 
other’s ignorance at a glance. 

“Why, irregular in form, if not in principle. I am - aware 
that the habeas corpus is all-essential, and that the law must 
have its way ; but really this does seem a little irregular, not 
to describe it by any harsher term.” 

Mr. Seal treated this new appeal respectfully, in appear- 
ance at least, for he saw it was made by one greatly his supe- 
rior, while he felt an utter contempt for it in essentials, as he 
perceived intuitively that this new intercession was made in a 
profound ignorance of the subject. As respects Mr. Blunt, 
however, he had an unpleasant distrust of the result, the quiet 
manner of that gentleman denoting more confidence in himself, 
and a greater practical knowledge of the laws. Still, to try 
the extent of the other’s information, and the strength of his 
nerves, he rejoined in a magisterial and menacing tone 

“ Yes, let the lady sue out a writ of habeas corpus if wrong- 
fully arrested ; and I should be glad to discover the foreigner 
who will dare to attempt a rescue in old England in defiance 
of English’ laws.” 

It is probable Paul Blunt would have relinquished his in- 
terference, from an apprehension that he might be ignorantly 
aiding the evil doer, but for this threat ; and even the threat 
might not have overcome his prudence, had not he caught the 
imploring look of the fine blue eyes of Eve. 

“ All are not necessarily foreigners who embark on board 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


29 


an American ship at an English port,” he said steadily, “nor 
is justice denied those that are. The habeas corpus is as well 
understood in other countries as in this, for happily we live in 
an age when neither liberty nor knowledge is exclusive. If an 
attorney, you must know yourself that you cannot legally ar- 
rest a wife for a husband, and that what you say of the habeas 
corpus is little worthy of attention.” 

“ We arrest, and whoever interferes with an officer in charge 
of a prisoner is guilty of a rescue. Mistakes must be rectified 
by the magistrates.” 

“True, provided the officer has warranty for what he does.” 

“Writs and warrants may contain errors, but an arrest is an 
arrest,” growled Grab. 

“ Not the arrest of a woman for a man. In such a case 
there is design, and not a mistake. If this frightened wife 
will take counsel from me, she will refuse to accompany you.” 

“ At her peril, let her dare to do so ! ” 

“ At your peril do you dare to attempt forcing her from the 
ship ! ” 

“Gentlemen, gentlemen! — let there be no misunderstand- 
ing, I pray you,” interposed the captain. “Mr. Blunt, Mr. 
Grab ; Mr. Grab, Mr. Blunt. No warm words, gentlemen, I 
beg of you. But the tide is beginning to serve, Mr. Attorney, 
and ‘ time and tide,’ you know — - If we stay here much longer, 
the Montauk may be forced to sail on the 2d, instead of the 
1 st, as has been advertised in both hemispheres. I should be 
sorry to carry you to sea, gentlemen, without your small stores; 
and as for the cabin, it is as full as a lawyer’s conscience. No 
remedy but the steerage in such a case. — Lay forward, men, 
and heave away. Some of you, man the fore-top-sail halyards. 
— We are as regular as our chronometers; the 1st, ioth, and 
20th, 'without fail.” 

There was some truth, blended with a little poetry, in Cap- 
tain Truck’s account of the matter. The tide had indeed made 
in his favor, but the little wind there was blew directly into the 
roadstead, and had not his feelings become warmed by- the 
distress of a pretty and interesting young woman, it is more 
than probable the" line would have incurred the disgrace of 
having a ship sail on a later day than had been advertised. 
As it was, however, he had the matter up in earnest and he 
privately assured Sir George and Mr. Dodge, if the affair were 
not immediately disposed of, he should carry both the attorney 
and officer to sea with him, and that he did not feel himself 
bound to furnish either with water. “ They may catch a little 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


3 ° 

rain, by wringing their jackets,” he added, with a wink ; 
“ though October is a dryish month in the American seas.” 

The decision of Paul Blunt would have induced the attor- 
ney and his companion to relinquish their pursuit but for 
two circumstances. They had both undertaken the job as a 
speculation, or on the principle of “ no play, no pay,” and all 
their trouble would be lost without success. Then the very 
difficulty that occurred had been foreseen, and while the officer 
proceeded to the ship, the uncle had been busily searching for 
a son on shore, to send off to identify the husband, — a step 
that would have been earlier resorted to could the young man 
have been found. This son was a rejected suitor, and he was 
now seen, by the aid of a glass that Mr. Grab always carried, 
pulling towards the Montauk, in a two-oared boat, with as much 
zeal as malignancy and disappointment could impart. His dis- 
tance from the ship was still considerable ; but a peculiar hat, 
with the aid of the glass, left no doubt of his identity. The at- 
torney pointed out the boat to the officer, and the latter, after 
a look through the glass, gave a nod of approbation. Exulta- 
tion overcame the usual wariness of the attorney, for his pride, 
too, had got to be enlisted in the success of his speculation, — 
men being so strangely constituted as often to feel as much joy 
in the accomplishment of schemes that are unjustifiable, as in 
the accomplishment of those of which they may have reason to 
be proud. 

On the other hand, the passengers and people of the packet 
seized something near the truth, with that sort of instinctive 
readiness which seems to characterize bodies of men in mo- 
ments of excitement. That the solitary boat which was pulling 
towards them in the dusk of the evening contained some one 
who might aid the attorney and his myrmidon, all believed, 
though in what manner none could tell. 

Between all seamen and the ministers of the law there is a 
long-standing antipathy, for the visits of the latter are usually 
so timed as to leave nothing between the alternatives of paying 
or of losing a voyage. It was soon apparent, then, that Mr. 
Seal had little to expect from the apathy of the crew, for never 
did men work with better will to get a ship loosened from the 
bottom. 

All this feeling manifested itself in a silent and intelligent 
activity rather than in noise and bustle, for every man onboard 
exercised his best faculties, as well as his best good will and 
strength ; the clock-work ticks of the palls of the windlass re- 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


31 


sembling those of a watch that had got the start of time, while 
the chain came in with surges of half a fathom at each heave. 

“ Lay hold of this rope, men,” cried Mr. Leach, placing the end 
of the main-topsail halyards in the hands of half-a-dozen athletic 
steerage passengers, who had all the inclination in the world to 
be doing, though uncertain where to lay their hands ; “ lay hold, 
and run away with it.” 

The second mate performed the same feat forward, and as 
the sheets had never been started, the broad folds of the M011- 
tauk’s canvas began to open, even while the men were heaving 
at the anchor. These exertions quickened the blood in the 
veins of those who were not employed, until even the quarter- 
deck passengers began to experience the excitement of a chase, 
in addition to the feelings of compassion. Captain Truck was 
silent, but very active in preparations. Springing to the wheel, 
he made its spokes fly until he had forced the helm hard up, 
when he unceremoniously gave it to John Effingham to keep 
there. His next leap was to the mizen-mast, where, after a 
few energetic efforts alone, he looked over his shoulder and 
beckoned for aid. 

“ Sir George Templemore, mizen-topsail-halyards ; mizen- 
topsail-halyards, Sir George Templemore,” muttered the eager 
master, scarce knowing what he said. “Mr. Dodge, now is the 
time to show that your name and nature are not identical.” 

In short, nearly all on board were busy, and, thanks to the 
hearty good will of the officers, stewards, cooks, and a few of 
the hands that could be spared from the windlass, busy in a 
way to spread sail after sail with a rapidity little short of that 
seen on board of a vessel of war. The rattling of the clew- 
garnet blocks, as twenty lusty fellows ran forward with the tack 
of the mainsail, and the hauling forward of braces, was the 
signal that the ship was clear of the ground, and coming under 
command. 

A cross current had superseded the necessity of casting the 
vessel, but her sails took the light air nearly abeam ; the captain 
understanding that motion was of much more importance just 
then than direction. No sooner did Jie perceive by the -bubbles 
that floated past, or rather appeared to float past, that his ship 
was dividing the water forward, than he called a trusty man to the 
wheel, relieving John Effiingham from his watch. The next 
instant, Mr. Leach reported the anchor catted and fished. 

“ Pilot, vou will be* responsible for this if my prisoners es- 
cape,” said Mr. Grab menacingly. “ Yori know my errand, and 
it is your duty to aid the ministers of the law.” 


32 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


“Harkee, Mr. Grab,” put in the Master, who had warmed 
himself with the exercise ; “ we all know, and we all do our 
duties, on board the Montauk. It is your duty to take Robert 
Davis oh shore if you can find him ; and it is my duty to take 
the Montauk to America ; now, if you will receive counsel 
from a well-wisher, I would advise you to see that you do not 
go in her. No one offers any impediment to your performing 
your office, and I’ll thank you to offer me none in performing 
mine. — Brace the yards further forward, boys, and let the ship 
come up to the wind.” 

As there were logic, useful information, law, and seaman- 
ship united in this reply, the attorney began to betray uneasi- 
ness ; for by this time the ship had gathered so much way as 
to render it exceedingly doubtful whether a two-oared boat 
would be able to come up with her, without the consent of 
those on board. It is probable, as evening had already closed 
and the rays of the moon were beginning to quiver on the ripple 
of the water, that he would have abandoned his object, though 
with infinite reluctance, had not Sir George Templemore 
pointed out to the captain a six-oared boat, that was pulling to- 
wards them from a quarter that permitted it to be seen in the 
moonlight. 

“That appears to be a man-of-war’s cutter,” observed the 
baronet uneasily, for by this time all on board felt a sort of per- 
sonal interest in their escape. 

“ It does indeed, Captain Truck,” added the pilot , “ and 
if she make a signal, it will become my duty to heave-to the 
Montauk.” 

“ Then bundle out of her, my fine fellow, as fast as you can ; 
for not a brace of a bowline shall be touched here, with my 
consent, for any such purpose. The ship is cleared — my hour 
is come — my passengers are on board — and America is my 
haven. Let them that want me, catch me. That is what I 
call Vattd 

The pilot' and the master of the Montauk were excellent 
friends, and understood each other perfectly, even while the 
former was making the most serious professions of duty. The 
boat was hauled up, and, first whispering a few cautions about 
the shoals and the currents, the worthy marine guide leaped 
into it, and was soon seen floating astern — a cheering proof 
that the ship had got fairly in motion. As he fell out of hear- 
ing in the wake of the vessel, the honestJfellow kept calling out 
“ to tack in season.” 

“ K y° u wish to try the speed of your boat against that of 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


33 


the pilot, Mr. Grab,” called out the captain, “ you will never 
have a better opportunity. It is a fine night for a regatta, and 
I will stand you a pound on Mr. Handlead’s heels. For that 
matter, I would as soon trust his head, or his hands, in the 
bargain.” 

The officer continued obstinately on board, for he saw that 
the six-oared boat was coining up with the ship, and, as he well 
knew the importance to his client of compelling a settlement of 
the accounts, he fancied some succor might be expected in that 
quarter. In the meantime, this new movement on the part of 
their pursuers attracted general attention, and, as might be ex- 
pected, the interest of this little incident increased the excite- 
ment that usually accompanies a departure for a long sea-voy- 
age, fourfold. Men and women forgot their griefs and leave- 
takings in anxiety, and in that pleasure which usually attends 
agitation of the mind that does not proceed from actual misery 
of our own. 


CHAPTER IV. 

Whither away so fast ? 

G God save you ! 

Even to the hall to hear what shall become 

Of the great Duke of Buckingham. 

Henry III. 

The assembling of the passengers of the large packet ship 
is necessarily an affair of coldness and distrust, especially with 
fthose who know the world, and more particularly still when the 
passage is from Europe to America. The greater sophistica- 
tion of the old than of the new hemisphere, with its consequent 
shifts and vices, the knowledge that the tide of emigration sets 
westward, and that few abandon the home of their youth unless 
impelled by misfortune at least, with other obvious causes, unite 
to produce this distinction. Then come the fastidiousness of 
habits, the sentiments of social castes, the refinements of breed- 
ing, and the reserves of dignity of character, to be put in close 
collision with bustling egotism, ignorance of usages, an absence 
of training and downright vulgarity of thought and practices. 
Although necessity soon brings these chaotic elements into 
something like order, the first week commonly passes in recon- 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


34 

noitring, cool civilities, and cautious concessions, to yield at 
length to the never-dying charities •; unless, indeed, the latter 
may happen to be kept in abeyance by a downright quarrel, 
about midnight carousals, a squeaking fiddle, or some incor- 
rigible snorer. 

Happily, the party collected in the Montauk had the good 
fortune to abridge the usual probation in courtesies, by the 
stirring events of the night on which they sailed. Two hours 
had scarcely elapsed since the last passenger crossed the gang- 
way, and yet the respective circles of the quarter-deck and 
steerage felt more sympathy with each other than the boasted 
human charities ordinarily quicken in days of commonplace 
intercourse. They had already found out each other’s names, 
thanks to the assiduity of Captain Truck, who had stolen time, 
in the midst of all his activity, to make half-a-dozen more in- 
troductions, and the Americans of the less trained class were al- 
ready using them as freely as if they were old acquaintances. We 
say Americans, for the cabins of these ships usually contain a 
congress of nations, though the people of England, and of her 
ci-devant colonies, of course predominate in those of the Lon- 
don lines. On the present occasion, the last two were nearly 
balanced in numbers, so far as national character could be 
made out ; opinion (which, as might be expected, had been 
busy the while,) being suspended in reference to Mr. Blunt, 
and one or two others whom the captain called “ foreigners,” to 
distinguish them from the Anglo-Saxon stock. 

This equal distribution of forces might, under other circum- 
stances, have led to a division in feeling ; for the conflicts be- 
tween American and British opinions, coupled with a difference 
in habits, are a prolific source of discontent in the cabins of 
packets. The American is apt to fancy himself at home, under 
the flag of his country ; while his Transatlantic kinsman is-,., 
strongly addicted to fancying that when he has fairly paid his 
money he has a right to embark all his prejudices with his 
other luggage. 

The affair of the attorney and the newly-married couple, 
however, was kept quite distinct from all feelings of nationality ; 
the English apparently entertaining quite as lively a wish that 
the latter might escape from the fangs of the law, as any other 
portion of the passengers. The parties themselves were British, 
and although the authority evaded was of the same origin, right 
or wrong, all on board had taken up the impression that it was 
improperly exercised. Sir George Templemore, the English- 
man of highest rank, was decidedly of this way of thinking, 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


35 

■ — an opinion he was rather warm in expressing, — and the 
example of a baronet had its weight, not only with most of 
his own countrymen, but with not a few of the Americans 
also. The Effingham party, together with Mr. Sharp and 
Mr. Blunt, were, indeed, all who seemed to be entirely in- 
different to Sir George’s sentiments; and, as men are intuitively 
quick in discovering who do and who do not defer to their sug- 
gestions, their accidental independence might have been favored 
by this fact, for the discourse of this gentlemen was addressed 
in the main to those who lent the most willing ears. Mr. 
Dodge, in particular, was his constant and respectful listener, 
and profound admirer : — But then he was his room-mate, and 
a democrat of a water so pure, that he was disposed to main- 
tain no man had a right to any one of his senses, unless by 
popular sufferance. 

In the mean while, the night advanced, and the soft 
light of the moon was playing on the waters, adding a semi- 
mysterious obscurity to the excitement of the scene. The 
two-oared boat had evidently been overtaken by that carry- 
ing six oars, and, after a short conference, the first had returned 
reluctantly towards the land, while the latter, profiting by its 
position, had set two lug-sails, and was standing out into the 
offing, on a course that would compel the Montauk to come un- 
der its lee, when the shoals, as would soon be the case, should 
force the ship to tack. 

“ England is most inconveniently placed,” Captain Truck 
dryly remarked as he witnessed this manoeuvre. “ Were this 
island only out of the way, now, we might stand on as we head, 
and leave those men-of-war’s men to amuse themselves all 
night with backing and filling in the roads of Portsmouth.” 

“ I hope there is no danger of that little boat’s overtaking 
this large ship ! ” exclaimed Sir George, with a vivacity that 
did great credit to his philanthropy, according to the opinion of 
Mr. Dodge at least ; the latter having imbibed a singular bias 
in favor of persons of condition, from having travelled in an 
eilwagen with a German baron, from whom he had taken a. 
model of the pipe he carried but never smoked, and from hav- 
ing been thrown for two days and nights into the society of a 
“ Polish countess,” as he uniformly termed her, in the gondole 
of a diligence , between Lyons and Marseille^. In addition, Mr. 
Dodge, as has just been hinted, was an ultra-freeman at home 
— a circumstance that seems always to react, when the subject 
of the feeling gets into foreign countries. 

“ A feather running before a lady’s sigh would outsail either 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


3 6 

of us in this air, which breathes on us in some such fashion as 
a whale snores, Sir George, by sudden puffs. I would give the 
price of a steerage passage, if Great Britain lay off the Cape of 
Good Hope for a week or ten days.” 

“ Or Cape Hatteras ! ” rejoined the mate. 

“Not I ; I wish the old island no harm, nor a worse climate 
than it has got already ; though it lies as much in our way just 
at this moment, as the moon is an eclipse of the sun. I bear 
the old creature a great-grandson’s love — or a step or two 
farther off, if you will, — and come and go too often to forget 
the relationship. But, much as I love her, the affection is not 
strong enough to go ashore on her shoals, and so we will go 
about, Mr. Leach ; at the same time, I wish from my heart that 
two-lugged rascal would go about his business.” 

The ship tacked slowly but gracefully, for she was in what 
her master termed “ racing trim ; ” and. as her bows fell off to 
the eastward, it became pretty evident to all who understood 
the subject, that the two little lug-sails that were “ eating into 
the wind,” as the sailors express it, would weather upon her 
track ere she could stretch over to the other shoal. Even the 
landsmen had some feverish suspicions of the truth, and the 
steerage passengers were already holding a secred conference 
on the possibility of hiding the pursued in some of the recesses 
of the ship. “ Such things were often done,” one whispered to 
another, “ and it was as easy to perform it now as at any other 
time.” 

But Captain Truck viewed the matter differently : his voca- 
tion called him three times a year into the roads at Ports- 
mouth, and he felt little disposition to embarrass his future in- 
tercourse with the place by setting its authorities at a too open 
defiance. He deliberated a good deal on the propriety of 
throwing his ship up into the wind, as she slowly advanced to- 
wards the boat, and of inviting those in the latter to board him. 
Opposed to this was the pride of profession, and Jack Truck 
was not a man to overlook or to forget the “yarns ” that were 
spun among his fellows at the New England Coffee-house, or 
among those farming hamlets on the banks of the Connecticut, 
whence all the packet-men are derived, and whither they repair 
for a shelter when their careers are run, as regularly as the 
fruit decays where if falleth, or the grass that has not been har- 
vested or cropped withers on its native stalk. 

“ There is nd question, Sir George, that this fellow is a 
man-of-war’s man,” said the master to the baronet, who stuck 
close to his side. “ Take a peep at the creeping rogue through 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


37 

this night-glass, and you will see his crew seated at their 
thwarts with their arms folded, like men who eat the king’s 
beef. None but your regular public servant ever gets that im- 
pudent air of idleness about him, either in England or America. 
In this respect, human nature is the same in both hemispheres, 
a man never falling in with luck, but he fancies it is no more 
than his deserts.” 

“ There seems to be a great many of them ! Can it be their 
intention to carry the vessel by boarding ? ” 

“ If it is, they must take the will for the deed,” returned 
Mr. Truck a little coldly. “I very much question if the 
Montauk, with three cabin officers, as many stewards, two 
cooks, and eighteen foremast-men, would exactly like the 
notion of being ‘ carried,’ as you style it, Sir George, by a six- 
oared cutter’s crew. We are not as heavy as the planet Jupiter, 
but have somewhat too much gravity to be ‘ carried ’ as lightly 
as all that, too.” 

“You intend, then, to resist ?” asked Sir George, ^hose 
generous zeal in behalf of the pursued apparently led him to 
take -a stronger interest in their escape than any other person 
on board. 

Captain Truck, who had never an objection to sport, 
pondered with himself a little, smiled, and then loudly expressed 
a wish that he had a member of congress or a member of 
parliament on board. 

“ Your desire is a little extraordinary for the circumstances,” 
observed Mr. Sharp ; “ will you have the goodness to explain 
why ? ” 

“ Thik matter touches on international law, gentlemen,” 
continued the master, rubbing his hands ; for, in addition to 
having caught the art of introduction, the honest mariner had 
taken it into his head he had become an adept in the principles 
of Vattel, of whom he possessed a well-thumbed copy, and for 
whose dogmas he entertained the deference that they who be- 
gin to learn late usually feel for the particular master into 
whose hands they have accidentally fallen. “ Under what cir- 
cumstances, or in what category, can a public armed ship 
compel a neutral to submit to being boarded — not ‘ carried,’ 

Sir George, you will please to remark ; for d me, if any 

man ‘ carries ’ the Montauk that is not strong enough to ‘ carry ’ 
her crew and cargo along with her ! — but in what category, 
now, is a packet like this I have the honor to command obliged, 
in comity, to heave-to and to submit to an examination at all ? 
The ship is a-weigh, and has handsomely tacked under her 


38 HOMEWARD BOUND . 

canvas ; and, gentlemen, I should be pleased to have your 
sentiments on the occasion. Just have the condescension to 
point out the category.” 

Mr. Dodge came from a part of the country in which men 
were accustomed to think, act, almost to eat and drink and 
sleep, in common ; or, in other words, from one of those re- 
gions, in America, in which there was so much community, that 
few had the moral courage, even when they possessed the 
knowledge, and all the other necessary means, to cause their 
individuality to be respected. When the usual process of con- 
ventions, sub-conventions, caucuses, and public meetings did 
not supply the means of “ concentrated action,” he and his 
neighbors had long been in the habit of having recourse to 
societies, by way of obtaining “ energetic means,” as it was 
termed ; and from his tenth year up to his twenty-fifth, this 
gentleman had been either a president, vice-president, manager, 
or committee-man, of some philosophical, political, or religious 
expedient to fortify human wisdom, make men better, and re- 
sist error and depotism. His experience had rendered him 
expert in what may well enough be termed the language of 
association. No man of his years, in the twenty-six States, 
could more readily apply the terms of “ taking up ” — • 
“ excitement ” — “ unqualified hostility ” — “ public opinion ” — 
“ spreading before the public,” or any other of those generic 
phrases that imply the privileges of all, and the rights of none. 
Unfortunately, the pronunciation of this person was not as 
pure as his motives, and he misunderstood the captain when he 
spoke of comity, as meaning a “committee ; ” and although it 
was not quite obvious what the worthy mariner could intend by 
“ obliged in committee (comity) to heave-to,” yet, as he had 
known these bodies to do so many “ energetic things,” he did 
not see why they might not perform this evolution as well as 
another. 

“ It really does appear. Captain Truck,” he remarked ac- 
cordingly, “ that our situation approaches a crisis, and the 
suggestion of a comity (committee) strikes me as being pecui 
arly proper and suitable to the circumstances, and in strict coi. 
formity with republican usages. In order to save time, and 
that the gentlemen who shall be appointed to serve may have 
opportunity to report, therefore, I will at once nominate Sir 
George Templemore as chairman, leaving it for any other gen- 
tleman present to suggest the name of any candidate he may 
deem proper. I will only add, that in my poor judgment this 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


39 

comity (committee) ought to consist of at least three, and that 
it have power to send for persons and papers.” 

“ I would propose five, Captain Truck, by way of amend- 
ment,” added another passenger of the same kidney as the last 
speaker, gentlemen of their school making it a point to differ 
a little from every proposition by way of showing their inde- 
pendence. 

It was fortunate for both the mover of the original motion, 
and for the proposer of the amendment, that the master was 
acquainted with the character of Mr. Dodge, or a proposition 
that his ship was to be worked by a committee, (or indeed by 
comity,) would have been very likely to meet with but an indif- 
ferent reception ; but, catching a glimpse of the laughing eyes 
of Eve, as well as of the amused faces of Mr. Sharp and Mr. 
Blunt, by the light of the moon, he very gravely signified his 
entire approbation of the chairman' named, and his perfect 
readiness to listen to the report of the aforesaid committee as 
soon as it might be prepared to make it. 

“ And if your committee, or comity, gentlemen,” he added, 
“can tell me what Vattel would say about the obligation to 
heave-to in a time of profound peace, and when the ship, or 
boat, in chase, can have no belligerent rights, I shall be grate- 
ful to my dying day ; for I have looked him through as closely 
as old women usually examine almanacs to tell which way the 
wind is about to blow, and I fear he has overlooked the subject 
altogether.” 

Mr. Dodge, and three or four more of the same community- 
propensity as himself, soon settled the names of the rest of the 
committee, when the nominees retired to another part of the 
deck to consult together ; Sir George Templemore, to the sur- 
prise of all the Effingham party, consenting to serve with a 
willingness that rather disregarded forms. 

“ It might be convenient to refer other matters to this com- 
mittee, captain,” said Mr. Sharp, who had tact enough to see 
that nothing but her habitual retenue of deportment kept Eve, 
whose bright eyes were dancing with humor, from downright 
laughter : “ there are the important points of reefing and furl- 
ing, the courses to be steered, the sail to be carried, the times 
and seasons of calling all hands together, with sundry other 
customary duties, that, no doubt, would be well treated on in 
this forthcoming report.” 

“ No doubt, sir ; I perceive you have been at sea before, 
and I am sorry you were overlooked in naming the members of 
the comity ; take my word for it, all that you have mentioned 


4 o 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


can be done on board the Montauk by a comity, as well as 
settling the question of heaving-to, or not, for yonder boat. By 
the way, Mr. Leach, the fellows have tacked, and are standing 
in this direction, thinking to cross our bows and speak us. 
Mr. Attorney, the tide is setting us off the land, and ‘you may 
make it morning before you get into your nests, if you hold on 
much longer. I fear Mrs. Seal and Mrs. Grab will be un- 
happy women.” 

The bloodhounds of the law heard this warning with indif- 
ference, for they expected succor of some sort, though they 
hardly knew of what sort, from the man-of-war’s boat, which, it 
was now plain enough, must weather on the ship. After putting 
their heads together, Mr. Seal offered his companion a pinch 
of snuff, helping himself afterwards, like a man indifferent to 
the result, and one patient in time of duty. The sunburnt 
face of the captain, whose standing color was that which cooks 
get when the fire burns the brightest, but whose hues no fire or 
cold ever varied, was- turned fully on the two, and it is probable 
they would have received some decided manifestation of his 
will, had not Sir George Templemore, with the four other com- 
mitteemen, approached to give in the result of their confer- 
ence. 

“We are of opinion, Captain Truck,” said the baronet, 
“ that as the ship is under way, and your voyage may be fairly 
said to have commenced, it is quite inexpedient and altogether 
unnecessary for you to anchor again ; but that it is your 
duty ” 

“ I have no occasion for advice as to my duty, gentlemen. 
If you can let me know what Vattel says, or ought to have 
said, on the subject, or touching the category of the right of 
search, except as a belligerent right, I will thank you ; if not, 
we must e’en guess at it. I have not sailed a ship in this 
trade these ten years to need any jogging of the memory about 
port-jurisdiction either, /or these are matters in which one gets 
to be expert by dint of use, as my old master used to say when 
he called us from table with half a dinner. Now, there was 
the case of the blacks in Charleston, in which our government 
showed clearly it had not studied Vattel, or it never would 
have given the answer it did. Perhaps you never heard that 
case, Sir George, and as it touches a delicate principle, I will 
just run over the category lightly ; for it has its points, as well 
as a coast.” 

“ Does not this matter press, — may not the boat — ” 

“ The boat will do nothing, gentlemen, without the permis- 


HOMEWARD BOUND, 


41 


sion of Jack Truck. You must know, the Carolinians have a 
law that all niggers brought into their state by ships, must be 
caged until the vessel sails again. This is to prevent emancipa- 
tion, as they call it, or abolition, I know not which. An En- 
glishman comes in from the islands with a crew of blacks, *and, 
according to law, the authorities of Charleston house them all 
before night. John Bull complains to his minister, and his 
minister sends a note to our secretary, and our secretary writes 
to the Governor of Carolina, calling on him to respect the 
treaty, and so on. Gentlemen, I need not to tell you what a 
treaty is — it is a thing in itself to be obeyed ; but it is all im- 
portant to know what it commands. Well, what was this said 
treaty ? That John should come in and out of the ports, on 
the footing of the most favored nation ; on the statu quo ante 
helium principle, as Vattelhas it. Now, the Carolinians treated 
John just as they treated Jonathan, and there was no more to 
be said. All parties were bound to enter the port, subject to 
the municipals, as is set forth in Vattel. That was a case soon 
settled, you perceive, through depending on a nicety.” 

Sir George had listened with extreme impatience, but, fear- 
ful of offending, he listened to the end ; then, seizing the first 
pause irt the captain’s discourse, he resumed his remonstrances 
with an interest that did infinite credit to his humanity, at the 
same time that he overlooked none of the obligations of polite- 
ness. 

“ An exceedingly clear case, I protest,” he answered, “ and 
capitally put — I question if Lord Stowell could do it better — 
and exceedingly apt, that about the ante helium ; but I confess 
my feelings have not been so much roused for a long time as 
- they have been on account of those poor people. There is 
something inexpressibly painful in being disappointed as one is 
setting out in the morning of life, as it were, in this cruel man- 
ner ; and rather than see this state of things protracted, I would 
prefer paying a trifle out of my own pocket. If this wretched 
attorney will consent, now, to take a hundred pounds and quit 
us, and carry back with him that annoying cutter with the lug- 
sails, I will give him the money most cheerfully, — most 
cheerfully, I protest.” 

There is something so essentially respectable in practical 
generosity, that, though Eve and all the curious auditors of 
what was passing felt an inclination to laugh at the whole pro- 
cedure up to this declaration, eye met eye in commendation 
of the liberality of the baronet. He had shown he had a heart, 
in the opinion of most of those who heard him, though his 


42 


HOME WARD B O UND. 


previous conversation had led several of the observers to dis- 
trust his having the usual quantum of head. 

“ Give yourself no trouble about the attorney, Sir George,” 
returned the captain, shaking the other cordially by the hand : 
“ he shall not touch a pound of your money, nor do I think he 
is likely to touch Robert Davis. We have caught the tide on 
our lee bow, and the current is wheeling us up to windward, 
like an- opposition coach flying over Blackheath. In a few 
minutes we shall be in blue water ; and then I’ll give the rascal 
a touch of Vattle that will throw him all aback, if it don’t throw 
him overboard.” 

“ But the cutter ? ” , 

“ Why, if we drive the attorney and Grab out of the ship, 
there will be no process in the hands of the others, by which 
they can carry off the man, even admitting the jurisdiction. I 
know the scoundrels, and not a shilling shall either of the 
knaves take from this vessel with my consent. Harkee, Sir 

George, a word in your ear : two of as d d cockroaches 

as ever rummaged a ship’s bread-room ; I’ll see that they soon 
heave about, or I’ll heave them both into their boat, with my 
own fair hands.” 

The captain was about to turn away to examine the position 
of the cutter, when Mr. Dodge asked permission to make a 
short report in behalf of the minority of the comity (committee), 
the amount of which was, that they agreed in all things with 
the majority except on the point that, as it might become ex- 
pedient for the ship to anchor again in some of the ports lower 
down the Channel, it would be wise to keep that material 
circumstance in view, in making up a final decision in the 
affair. This report, on the part of the minority, which, Mr. 
Dodge explained to the baronet, partook rather of the char- 
acter of a caution than of a protest, had quite as little influence 
on Captain Truck as the opinion of the majority, for he was 
just one of those persons who seldom took advice that did not 
conform with his own previous decision ; but he coolly continued 
to examine the cutter, which by this time was standing on the 
same course, as the ship, a short distance to windward of her, 
and edging a little off the wind, so as to bring the two mearer 
to each other, every yard they advanced. 

The wind had freshened to a little breeze, and the captain 
nodded his head with satisfaction when he heard', even where 
he stood on the quarter-deck, the slapping of the sluggish swell, 
as the huge bows of the ship parted the water. At this mo- 
ment those in the cutter saw the bubbles glide swiftly past 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


43 


them, while to those in the Montauk the motion was still slow 
and heavy ; and yet, of the two, the actual velocity was rather 
in favor of the latter, both having about what is technically 
termed “ four-knot way ” on them. The officer of the boat was 
quick to detect the change that was acting against him, and by 
easing the sheets of his lug-sails, and keeping the cutter as 
much off the wind as he could, he was soon within a hundred 
feet of the ship, running along on her weather-beam. The 
bright soft moonlight permitted the face of a young man in a 
man-of-war cap, who wore the undress uniform of a sea lieu- 
tenant, to be distinctly seen, as he rose in the stern-sheets, 
which contained also two other persons. 

“ I will thank you to heave-to the Montauk,” said the lieu- 
tenant civilly, while he raised his cap, apparently in compliment 
to the passengers who crowded the rail to see and hear what 
passed. “ I am sent on the duty of the king, sir.” 

“ I know your errand, sir,” returned Captain Truck, whose 
resolution to refuse to comply was a good deal shaken by the 
gentleman-like manner in which the request was made ; “ and 
I wish you to bear witness, that if I do consent to your request, 
it is voluntarily; for, on the principles laid down by Vattel and 
the other writers on international law, the right of search is a 
belligerent right, and England being at peace, no ship belonging 
to one nation can have a right to stop a vessel belonging to an- 
other.” 

“ I cannot enter into these niceties, sir,” returned the 
lieutenant, sharply: “I have my orders, and you will excuse 
me if I say, I intend to execute them.” 

“ Execute them, with all my heart, sir : if you are ordered 
to heave-to my ship, all you have to do is to get on board if 
you can, and let us see the style in which you handle yards. 
As to the people now stationed at the braces, the trumpet that 
will make them stir is not to be spoken through at the Admir- 
alty. The fellow has spirit in him, and I like his principles as 
an officer, but I cannot admit his conclusions as a jurist. If he 
flatters himself with being able to frighten us into a new cate- 
gory, now, that is likely to impair national rights, the lad has, 
just got himself into a problem that will need all his logic, and 
a good deal of his spirit, to get out of again.” 

“ You will scarcely think of resisting'a king’s officer in British 
waters ! ” said the young man with that haughtiness that the 
meekest tempers soon learn to acquire under a pennant. 

“ Resisting, my dear sir ! I resist nothing. The miscon- 
ception is in supposing that you sail this ship instead of John 


44 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


Truck, That is my name, sir ; John Truck. Do your errand 
in welcome, but do not ask me to help you. Come aboard, 
with all my heart ; nothing would give me more pleasure than 
to take wine with you ; but I see no necessity of stopping a 
packet, that is busy on a long road, without an object, as we 
say on the other side of the big waters.” 

There was a pause, and then the lieutenant, with the sort of 
hesitation that a gentleman is apt to feel when he makes a 
proposal that he knows ought not to be accepted, called out 
that those in the boat with him would pay for the detention of 
the ship. A more unfortunate proposition could not be made 
to Captain Truck, who would have hove-to his ship in a mo- 
ment had the lieutenant proposed to discuss Vattel with him on 
the quarter-deck, and who was only holding out as a sort of 
salvo to his rights, with that disposition to resist aggression 
that the experience of the last forty years has so deeply im- 
planted in the bosom of every American sailor, in cases con- 
nected with English naval officers, and who had just made up 
his mind to let Robert Davis take his chance, and to crack a 
bottle with the handsome young man who was still standing up 
in the boat. But Mr. Truck had been too often to London not 
to understand exactly the manner in which Englishmen appre- 
ciate American character ; and, among other things, he knew 
it was the general opinion in the island that money could do 
anything with Jonathan, or, as Christophe is said once to have 
sententiously expressed the same sentiment, “ If there were a 
bag of coffee in h — , a Yankee could be found to go and bring 
it out.” 

The master of the Montauk had a proper relish for his law- 
ful gains as well as another, but he was vainglorious on the 
subject of his countrymen, principally because he found that 
the packets outsailed all other merchant-ships, and fiercely 
proud of any quality that others were disposed to deny them. 

At hearing this proposal, or intimation, therefore, in stead 
of acepting it, Captain Truck raised his hat with formal 
civility, and coolly wished the other “ good night. This was 
bringing the affair to a crisis at once ; for the helm of the cutter 
was borne up, and an attempt was made to run the boat along- 
side of the ship. But the breeze had been steadily increasing, 
the air had grown heaver as the night advanced, and the damp- 
ness of evening was thickening the canvas of the coarser sails 
in a way sensibly to increase the speed of the ship, When the 
conversation commenced, the boat was abreast of the fore- rig- 
ging ; and by the time it ended, it was barely up with the mizzen. 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


45 


The lieutenant was quick to see the disadvantage he labored un- 
der, and he called out “ Heave” as he found the cutter was falling 
close under the counter of the ship, and would be in her wake 
in another minute. The bowman of the boat cast a light grap- 
nel with so much precision that it hooked in the mizzen rig- 
ging, and the line instantly tightened so as to tow the cutter. 
A seaman was passing along the outer edge of the hurricane- 
house at the moment, coming from the wheel, and with the 
decision of an old salt, he quietly passed his knife across the 
stretched cordage, and it snapped like packthread. The grap- 
nel fell into the sea, and the boat was tossing in the wake of 
the ship, all as it might be while one could draw a breath. To 
furl the sails and ship the oars consumed but an instant, 
and then the cutter was ploughing the water under the vigor- 
ous strokes of her crew. 

“ Spirited ! spirited and nimble ! ” observed Captain Truck, 
who stood coolly leaning against a shroud, in a position where 
he could command a view of all that was passing, improving 
the opportunity to shake the ashes from his cigar while he 
spoke ; “ a fine young fellow, and one who will make an admiral, 
or something better, I daresay, if he live ; — perhaps a cherub, in 
time. Now, if he pull much longer in the back-water of our wake 
I shall have to give him up, Leach, as a little marin-A^ : ah ! there 
he sheers out of it, like a sensible youth as he is ? Well, there . 
is something pleasant in the conceit of a six-oared boat’s carry- 
ing a London liner by boarding, even admitting the lad could 
have got alongside.” 

So, it would seem, thought Mr. Leach and the crew of the 
Montauk, for they were clearing the decks with as much 
philosophy as men ever discover when employed in an unthank- 
ful office. This sang-froid of seamen is always matter of sur- 
prise to landsmen ; but adventurers who have been rocked 
in the tempest for years, whose utmost security is a great hazard 
and whose safety constantly depends on the command of the 
faculties, come in time to experience an apathy on the subject 
of all the minor terrors and excitements of life, that none can 
acquire unless by habit and similar risks. There was a low 
laugh among the people, and now and then a curious glance 
of the eye over the quarter to ascertain the position of the 
struggling boat : but there the effect of the little incident 
ceased, so far as the seamen were concerned. 

Not ^o with the passengers. The Americans exulted at 
the failure of the man of-war’s man, and the English doubted. 
To them, deference to the crown was habitual, and they were 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


46 

displeased at seeing a stranger play a king’s boat such' a trick, 
in what they justly enough thought to be British waters. 
Although the law may not give a man any more right than an- 
other to the road before his own door, he comes in time to fancy 
it, in a certain degree, his particular road. Strictly speaking, 
the Montauk was perhaps still under the dominion of the 
English laws, though she had been a league from the land when 
laying at her anchor, and by this time the tide and her own 
velocity had swept her broad off into the offing quite as far 
again ; indeed she had now got to such a distance from the 
land, that Captain Truck thought it his “ duty” to bring matters 
to a conclusion with the attorney. 

“Well, Mr. Seal,” he said. v I am grateful for the pleasure 
of your company thus far ; but you will excuse me if I decline 
taking you and Mr. Grab quite to America. Half an hour 
hence you will hardly be able to find the island; for as soon 
as we have got to a proper distance from the cutter, I shall 
tack to the southwest, and you ought, moreover, to remember 
the anxiety of the ladies at home.” 

“ This may turn out a serious matter, Captain Truck, on . 
your return passage ! The laws of England are not to be 
trifled with. Will you oblige me by ordering the steward to 
hand me a glass of water ? Waiting for justice is dry duty, I 
find.” 

“ Extremely sorry I cannot comply, gentlemen. Yattel 
has nothing on the subject of watering belligerents, or neutrals, 
and the laws of Congress compel me to carry so many gallons 
to the man. If you will take it in the way of a nightcap, how- 
ever, and drink success to our run to America, and your own 
to the shore, it shall be in champagne, if you happen to like 
that agreeable fluid.” 

The attorney was about to express his readiness to compro- 
mise on these terms, when a glass of the beverage for which 
he had first asked was put into his hand by the wife of Robert 
Davis. He took the water, drank it, and turned from the woman 
with the obduracy of one who never suffered feeling to divert 
him from the pursuit of gain. The wine was brought, and 
the captain filled the glasses with a seaman’s heartiness, 

“ I drink to your safe return to Mrs. Seal, and the little 
gods and goddesses of justice, — Pan or Mercury, which is it ? 
And as for you, Grab, look out for sharks as you pull in. If 
they hear of your being afloat, the souls of persecuted sailors 
will set them on you, as the devil chases male coquettes. Well, 
gentlemen, you are balked this time ; but what matters it ? It 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


47 

is but another man got safe out of a country that has too many in 
it ; and I trust we shall meet good friends again this day four 
months. Even man and wife must part, when the hour ar- 
rives.” 

“ That will depend on how my client views your conduct 
on this occasion, Captain Truck ; for he is not a man that 
it is always safe to thwart.” 

“ That for your client, Mr. Seal ! ” returned the captain, 
snapping his fingers. “ I am not to be frightened with an 
attorney’s growl, or a bailiff’s nod. You come off with a writ 
or a warrant, I care not which ; I offer no resistance ; you 
hunt for your man, like a terrier looking for a rat, and can’t 
find him ; I see the fine fellow, at this moment, on deck, — but 
I feel no obligation to tell you who or where he is ; my ship is 
cleared and I sail, and you have no power to stop me ; we are 
outside of all the headlands, good two leagues and a half off, 
and some writers say that a gunshot is the extent of your juris- 
diction, once out of which, your authority is not worth half as 
much as that of my chief cook, who has power to make his 
mate clean the coppers. Well, sir, you stay here ten minutes 
longer and we shall be fully three leagues from your nearest 
land, and then you are in America, according to law, and a 
quick passage you will have made of it. Now, that is what I 
call a category.” 

As the captain made this last remark, his quick eye saw 
that the wind had hauled so far round to the westward, as to 
supersede the necessity of tacking, and that they were actually 
going eight knots in a direct line from Portsmouth. Casting 
an eye behind him, he perceived that the cutter had given up 
the chase, and was returning towards the distant roads. Under 
circumstances so discouraging, the attorney, who began to be 
alarmed for his boat, which was flying along on the water, 
towed by the ship, prepared to take his leave ; for he was fully 
aware that he had no power to compel the other to heave-to 
his ship, to enable him to get out of her. Luckily the water 
was still tolerably smooth, and with fear and trembling, Mr. 
Seal succeeded in blundering into the boat ; not, however, 
until the watermen had warned him of their intention to hold on 
no longer. Mr. Grab followed, with a good deal of difficulty, 
and just as a hand was about to let go the painter, the captain 
appeared at the gangway with the man they were in quest of, 
and said in his most winning manner, — 

“ Mr. Grab, Mr. Davis ; Mr. Davis, Mr. Grab ; I seldom in- 
troduce steerage passengers, but to oblige two old friends I 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


48 

break the rule. That’s what I call a category. My compli- 
ments to Mr. Grab. Let go the painter.” 

The words were no sooner uttered than the boat was tossing 
and whirling in the caldron left by the passing ship. 


CHAPTER V. 

What country, friends, is this? 

Illyria, lacty. 

Twelfth Night. 

Captain Truck cast an eye aloft to see if everything drew, 
as coolly as if nothing out of the usual course had happened ; 
he and his crew having, seemingly, regarded the attempt to 
board them as men regard the natural phenomena of the 
planets, or in other words, as if the ship, of which they were 
merely parts, had escaped by her own instinct .or volition. 
This habit of considering the machine as the governing prin- 
ciple is rather general among seamen, who, while they ease a 
brace, or drag a bowline, as the coachman checks a rein, appear 
to think it is only permitting the creature to work her own will 
a little more freely. It is true all know better, but none talk, or 
indeed would seem to feel , as if they thought otherwise. 

“ Did you observe how the old barky jumped out of the way 
of those rovers in the cutter ? ” said the captain complacently, 
to the quarter-deck group, when his survey aloft had takep 
sufficient heed that his own nautical skill should correct the in- 
stinct of the sjiip. A skittish horse, or a whale with the irons 
in him, or, for that matter, one of the funniest of your theatri- 
cals, would not have given a prettier aside than this poor old 
hulk, which is certainly just the clumsiest craft that sails the 
ocean. I wish King William would take it into his royal head, 
now, to send one of his light-heeled cruisers out to prove it, by 
way of resenting the cantaverous trick the Montauk played his 
boat ! ” 

The dull report of a gun, as the sound came short and 
deadened up against the breeze, checked the raillery of Mr. 
Truck. On looking to leeward, there was sufficient light to see 
the symmetrical sails of the corvette they had left at anchor, 
trimmed close by the wind, and the vessel itself standing out 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


49 


under a press of canvas, apparently in chase. The gun had 
evidently been fired as a signal of recall to the cutter, blue 
lights being burnt on board of both the ship and its boat, in 
proof that they were communicating. 

The passengers now looked gravely at each other, for the 
matter, in their eyes, began to be serious. Some suggested the 
possibility that the offence of Davis might be other than debt, 
but this was disproved by the process and the account of the 
bailiff himself ; while most concluded that a determination to 
resent the slight done the authorities had caused the cruiser to 
follow them out, with the intention of carrying them back 
again. The English passengers in particular began now to 
reason in favor of the authority of the crown, while those who 
were known to be Americans grew warm in maintaining the 
rights of their flag. Both the Effinghams, however, were 
moderate in the expression of their opinions ; for education, 
years, and experience, had taught them to discriminate justly. 

“ As respects the course of Captain Truck, in refusi«g to 
permit the cutter to board' him, he is probably a better judge 
than any of us,” Mr. Effingham observed with gentlemanly 
reserve — “ for he must better understand the precise position 
of his ship at the time ; but concerning the want of right in a 
foreign vessel of war to carry this ship into port in a time of 
profound peace, when sailing on the high seas, as will soon be 
the case with the Montauk, — admitting that she is not there at 
present, — I should think there can be no reasonable doubt. 
The dispute, if there is to be any, has now to become matter of 
negotiation ; or redress must be sought through the general 
agents of the two nations, and not taken by the inferior officers 
of either party. The instant- the Montauk reaches the public 
highway of nations, she is within the exclusive jurisdiction of 
the country under whose flag she legally sails.” 

“ Vattel, to the backbone ! ” said the captain, giving a nod 
of approbation, again clearing the end of his cigar. 

Now, John Effingham was a man of strong feelings, which 
is often but another word for a man of strong prejudices ; and 
he had been educated between thirty or forty years before, which 
is saying virtually, that he was educated under the influence 
of the British opinions, that then weighed (and many of which 
still weigh) like an incubus on the national interests of America. 
It is true, Mr. Effingham was in all senses the contemporary, as 
he had been the schoolfellow, of his cousin ; that they loved each 
other as brothers, had the utmost reliance on each other’s prin- 
ciples in the main, thought .alike in a thousand things, and 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


5 ° 

yet in the particular of English domination, it was scarcely 
possible for one man to resemble another less than the widowed 
kinsman resembled the bachelor. 

Edward Effingham was a singularly just-minded man, and 
having succeeded at an early age to his estate, he had lived 
many years in the intellectual retirement which, by withdraw- 
ing him from the strifes of the world, had left a cultivated sa- 
gacity to act freely on a natural disposition. At the period 
when the entire republic was, in substance, exhibiting the dis- 
graceful picture of a nation torn by adverse factions, that had 
their origin in interests alien to its own ; when most were either 
Englishmen or Frenchmen, he had remained what nature, the 
laws atid reason intended him to be, an American. Enjoying 
the otium cum dignitate on his hereditary estate, and in his 
hereditary abode, Edward Effingham, with little pretensions to 
greatness, and with many claims to goodness had hit the line 
of truth which so many of the “ god-likes ” of the republic, 
under the influence of their passions, and stimulated by the 
transient and fluctuating interests of the day, entirely over- 
looked, or which, if seeing, they recklessly disregarded. A 
less impracticable subject for excitement, — the prtmum mobile 
of all American patriotism and activity, if we are to believe the 
theories of the times, — could not be found, than this gentleman. 
Independence of situation had induced independence of 
thought ; study and investigation rendered him original and 
just, by simply exempting him from the influence of the pas- 
sions ; and while hundreds were keener, abler in the exposition 
of subtleties, or more imposing with the mass, few were as 
often right, and none of less selfishness, than this simple-minded 
and upright gentleman. He loved his native land, while he 
saw and regretted its weaknesses ; was its firm and consistent 
advocate abroad, without becoming its interested or mawkish 
flatterer at home, and at all times, and in all situations, man- 
ifested that his heart was where it ought to be. 

In many essentials, John Effingham was the converse of all 
this. Of an intellect much more acute and vigorous than that 
of his cousin, he also possessed passions less under control, 
a will more stubborn, and prejudices that often neutralized his 
reason. His father had inherited most of the personal property 
of the family, and with this he had plunged into the vortex of 
moneyed speculation that succeeded the adoption of the new- 
constitution, and verifying the truth of the sacred saying, that 
“ where treasure is, there will the heart be also,” he had entered 
warmly and blindly into all the. factious and irreconcilable 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


51 

principles of party, if such a word can properly be applied to 
rules of conduct that vary with the interests of the day, and 
had adopted the current errors with which faction unavoidably 
poisons the mind. 

America was then much too young in her independence, 
and too insignificant in all eyes but her own, to reason and 
act for herself, except on points that pressed too obviously on 
her immediate concerns to be overlooked; but the great social 
principles, — or it might be better to say, the great social inter- 
ests, — that then distracted Europe, produced quite as much 
sensation in that distant country, as at all comported with a 
state of things that had so little practical connection with the 
result. The Effingham family had started Federalists, in the 
true meaning of the term ; for their education, native sense 
and principles, had a leaning to order, good government, and 
the dignity of the country ; but as factions became fiercer, and 
names got to be confounded and contradictory, the landed 
branch settled down into what they thought were American, 
and the commercial branch into what might properly be termed 
English Federalists. We do not mean that the father of John 
intended to be untrue to h'is native land ; but by following up 
the dogmas of party he had reasoned himself into a set of 
maxims which, if they meant anything, meant everything but 
that which had been solemnly adopted as the governing prin- 
ciples of his own country, and many of which were diametrically 
opposed to both its interests and its honor. 

John Effingham had insensibly imbibed the sentiments of 
his particular sect, though the large fortune inherited from his 
father had left him too independent to pursue the sinuous 
policy of trade. He had permitted temperament to act on 
prejudice to such an extent that he vindicated the right of 
England to force men from under the American flag, a doc- 
trine that his cousin was too simple-minded and clear-headed 
ever to entertain for an instant : and he was singularly inge- 
nious in discovering blunders in all the acts of the republic, 
when they conflicted with the policy of Great Britain. In 
short, his talents were necessary, perhaps, to reconcile so much 
sophistry, or to render that reasonably plausible that was so 
fundamentally false. After the peace of 1815, John Effingham 
went abroad for the second time, and he hurried through Eng- 
land with the eagerness of strong affection ; an affection that 
owed its existence even more to opposition than to settled 
notions of truth, or to natural ties. The result was disappoint- 
ment, as happens nineteen times in twenty, and this solely be- 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


5 2 

cause, in the zeal of a partisan, he had fancied theories, and 
imagined results. Like the English radical, who rushes into 
America with a mind unsettled by impracticable dogmas, he 
experienced a reaction, and this chiefly because he found that 
men were not superior to nature, and discovered so late in the 
day, what he might have known at starting, that particular 
causes must produce particular effects. From this time, John 
Effingham became a wiser and a more moderate man ; though, 
as the shock had not been sufficiently violent to throw him 
backward on truth, or rather upon the opposing prejudices of 
another sect, the remains of the old notions were still to be 
discovered lingering in his opinions, and throwing a species 
of twilight shading over his mind ; as, in nature, the hues of 
evening and the shadows of the morning follow, or precede, 
the light of the sun. 

Under the- influence of these latent prejudices, then, John 
Effingham replied to the remarks of his cousin, and the dis- 
course soon partook of the discursive character of all argu- 
ments, in which the parties are not singularly cle^r-headed, 
and free from any other bias than that of truth. Nearly all 
joined in it, and half an hour was soon passed in settling the 
law of nations, and the particular merits or demerits of the in- 
stance before them. 

It was a lovely night, and Mademoiselle Viefville and Eve 
walked the deck for exercise, the smoothness of the water 
rendering the ^moment every way favorable. As has been 
already said, the common feeling in the escape of the new- 
married couple had broken the ice, and less restraint existed 
between the passengers, at the moment when Mr. Grab left the 
ship, than would have been the case at the end of a week, 
under ordinary circumstances. Eve Effingham had passed her 
time since her eleventh year principally on the continent of 
Europe, and in the mixed intercourse that is common to 
strangers in that part of the world ; or, in other words,, equally 
without the severe restraint that is usually imposed there on 
the young of her own sex, or without the extreme license that 
is granted to them at home. She came of a family too well 
toned to run into the extravagant freedoms that sometimes 
pass for easy manners in America, had she never quitted her 
father’s house even : but her associations abroad had unavoid- 
ably imparted greater reserve to her ordinary deportment than 
the simplicity of cis-Atlantic usages would have rendered in- 
dispensable in the most fastidious circles. With" the usual 
womanly reserves, she was natural and unembarrassed in her 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


53 

intercourse with the world, and she had been allowed to see so 
many different nations, that she had obtained a self-confidence 
that did her no injury, under the influence of an exemplary 
education, and great natural dignity of mind. Still, Made- 
moiselle Viefville, notwithstanding she had lost some of her own 
peculiar notions on the subject, by having passed so many 
years in an American family, was a little surprised at observing 
that Eve received the respectful advances of Mr. Sharp and 
Mr. Blunt with less reserve than it was usual to her to manifest 
to entire strangers. Instead of remaining a mere listener, she 
answered several remarks of the first, and once or twice she 
even laughed with him openly at some absurdity of the com- 
mittee of five. The cautious governess wondered, but half dis- 
posed to fancy that there was no more than the necessary 
freedom of a ship in it all, — for, like a true Frenchwoman, 
Mademoiselle Viefville had very vague notions of the secrets 
of the mighty deep — she permitted it to pass, confiding in the 
long-tried taste and discretion of her charge. While Mr. 
Sharp discoursed with Eve, who held her arm the while, she 
herself had fallen into an animated conversation with Mr. 
Blunt, who walked at her side, and who spoke her own lan- 
guage so well, that she at first set him down as a countryman, 
travelling under an English appellation, as a nom de guerre. 
While this dialogue was at its height of interest — for Paul 
Blunt discoursed with his companion of Paris and its excellen- 
cies with a skill that soon absorbed all her attention, “ Paris , 
ce magnijique Paris?’ having almost as much influence on the 
happiness of the governess, as it was said to have had on that 
of Madame de Stael, Eve’s companion dropped his voice to a 
tone that was rather confidential for a stranger, although it 
was perfectly respectful, and said, — 

“ I have flattered myself, perhaps through the influence of 
self-love alone, that Miss Effingham has not so far forgotten all 
whom she has met in her travels, as to think me an utter 
stranger.” 

‘‘Certainly not,” returned Eve, with perfect simplicity and 
composure ; “ else would one of my faculties, that of memory, 
be perfectly useless. I knew you at a glance, and consider the 
worthy captain’s introduction as so much finesse of breeding 
utterly thrown away.” 

“ I am equally gratified and vexed at all this ; gratified and 
infinitely flattered to find that. I have not passed before your 
eyes like the common herd, who leave no traces of even their 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


54 

features behind them ; and vexed at finding myself in a situa- 
tion that, I fear, you fancy excessively ridiculous ? ” 

“ Oh, one hardly dare to attach such sconsequences to acts 
of young men, or youngwomen either, in an age as original as 
our own. I saw nothing particularly absurd but the introduc- 
tion ; — and so many absurder have since passed, that this is 
almost forgotten.” 

And the name ? ” 

“ — Is certainly a keen one. If I am not mistaken, when 
we were in Italy you were content to let your servant bear it ; 
but, venturing among a people so noted for sagacity as the 
Yankees, I suppose you have fancied it was necessary to go 
armed cap-a-pie .” 

Both laughed lightly, as if they equally enjoyed the pleas- 
antry, and then he resumed, — 

“ But I sincerely hope you do not impute improper motives 
to the incognito ? ” 

“ I impute it to that which makes many young men run 
from Rome to Vienna, or from Vienna to Paris ; which causes 
you to sell the vis-a-vis to buy a dor?neuse ; to know your friends 
to-day, and to forget them to-morrow ; or, in short, to do a 
hundred other things that can .be accounted for on no other 
motive.” 

“ And this motive ? ” 

“ — Is simply caprice.” 

“ I wish I could persuade you to ascribe some better reason 
to all my conduct. Can you think of nothing, in the present 
instance, less discreditable ? ” 

“ Perhaps I can,” Eve answered, after a moment of thought ; 
then laughing lightly again, she added, quickly, “ But I fear, in 
exonerating you from the charge of unmitigated caprice, I shall 
ascribe a reason that does little less credit to your knowledge.” 

“ This will appear in the end. Does Mademoiselle Viefville 
remember me, do you fancy ? ” 

“ It is impossible ; she was ill, you will remember, the 
three months we saw so much of you.” 

“ And your father, Miss Effingham ; — am I really forgotten 
by him ? ” 

“ I am quite certain you are not. He never forgets a face, 
whatever in this instance may have befallen the name.” 

“ He received me so coldly, and so much like a total 
stranger ! ” 

“ He is too well-bred to recognize a man who wishes to be 
unknown, or to indulge in exclamations of surprise, or in 


HOMEWARD ROUND . 


55 

dramatic starts. He is more stable than a girl, moreover, and 
may feel less indulgence to caprice.” 

“ I f ee l obliged to his reserve ; for exposure would be ridi- 
culous, and so long as you and he alone know me, I shall 
feel less awkward in the ship. I am certain neither will betrav 
me.” y 

“ Betray ! ” 

“ Betray, discover, annihilate me if you will. Anything is 
preferable to ridicule.” 

“ This touches a little on the caprice ; but you flatter 
yourself with too much security ; you are known to one more 
besides my father, myself, and the honest man whom you 
have robbed of all his astuteness, which I believe was in his 
name.” 

“ For pity’s sake, who can it be ? ” 

“ The worthy Nanny Sidley, my whilom nurse, and actual 
femme de chambre. No ogre was ever more vigilant on his 
ward than the faithful Nanny, and it is vain to suppose she 
does not recall your features.” 

“ But ogres sometimes sleep ; recollect how many have 
been overcome in that situation.” 

Eve smiled, but shook her head. She was about to assure 
Mr. Sharp of the vanity of his belief, when an exclamation from 
her governess diverted the attention of both, and before either 
had time to speak again, Mademoiselle turned to them, and 
sajd rapidly in French, — 

“ I assure you, ma chere, I should have mistaken monsieur 
for a compairiote by his language, were it not for a single 
heinous fault that he has just committed.” 

“ Which fault you will suffer me to inquire into, that I may 
hasten to correct it ? ” asked Mr. Blunt. 

“ Mais, monsieur, you speak too perfectly, too grammatically, 
for a native. You do not take the liberties with the language 
that one who feels he owns it thinks he has a right to do. It 
is the fault of too much correctness.” 

“ And a fault it easily becomes. I thank you for the hint, 
mademoiselle ; but as I am now going where little French will 
be heard, it is probable it will soon be lost in greater 
mistakes.” 

The two then turned away again, and continued the dialogue 
that had been interrupted by this trifling. 

“ There may also be one more to whom you are known,” 
continued Eve, as soon as the vivacity of the discourse of the 
others satisfied her the remark would not be heard. 


56 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


“ Surely, you cannot mean him ? ” 

“ Surely, I do mean him . Are you quite certain that ‘ Mr. 
Sharp, Mr. Blunt; Mr. Blunt, Mr. Sharp,’ never saw each 
other before ? ” 

“ I think not until the moment we entered the boat in 
company. He is a gentlemanly young man ; he seems even 
to be more, and one would not be apt to forget him. He is 
altogether superior to the rest of the set : do you not agree 
with me ? ” 

Eve made no answer, probably because she thought her 
companion was not sufficiently intimate to interrogate her on 
the subject of her opinions of others. Mr. Sharp had too 
much knowledge of the world not to perceive the little mistake 
he had made, and after begging the young lady, with a ludicrous 
deprecation of her mercy, not to betray him, he changed the 
conversation with the tact of a man who saw that the discourse 
could not be continued without assuming a confidential charac- 
ter that Eve was indisposed to permit. Luckily, a pause in 
the discourse between the governess and her colloquist per- 
mitted a happy turn to the conversation. 

“ I believe you are an American, Mr. Blunt,” he remarked ; 
“ and as. I am an Englishman, we may be fairly pitted against 
each other on this important question of international law, and 
about which I hear our worthy captain flourishing extracts 
from Vattel as familiarly as household terms. I hope, at least, 
you agree with me in thinking that when the sloop-of-\yar 
comes up with us, it will be very silly on out part to make any 
objections to being boarded by her ? ” 

“ I do not know that it is at all necessary I should be an 
American to give an opinion on such a point,” returned the 
young man he addressed, courteously, though he smiled to 
himself as he answered, — “ For what is right, is right, quite 
independent of nationality. It really does appear to me that a 
public-armed vessel ought, in war or peace, to have a right to 
ascertain the character of all merchant-ships, at least on the 
coast of the country to which the cruisers belong. Without 
this power, it is not easy to see in what manner they can seize 
smugglers, capture pirates, or otherwise enforce the objects 
for which such vessels are usually sent to sea, in the absence 
of positive hostilities.” 

“ I am happy to find you agreeing with me, then, in the 
legality of the doctrine of the right of search.” 

Paul Blunt again smiled, and Eve, as she caught a glimpse 
of his fine countenance in turning in their short walk, fancied 


JIOME WARD BOUND . 


57 

there was a concealed pride of reason in the expression. Still 
he answered as mildly and quietly as before. 

“ The right of search, certainly, to attain these ends, but to 
attain no more. If nations denounce piracy, for instance, and 
employ especial agents to detect and overcome the freebooters, 
there is reason in according to these agents all the rights that 
are requisite to the discharge of the duties : but, in conceding 
this much, I do not see that any authority is acquired beyond 
that which immediately belongs to the particular service to be 
performed. If we give a man permission to enter our house to 
look for thieves, it does not follow that, because so admitted, 
he has a right to exercise any other function. I do believe 
that the ship in chase of us, as a public cruiser, ought to be 
allowed to board this vessel ; but finding nothing contrary to 
the laws of nations about her, that she will have no power to 
detain or otherwise molest her. Even the right I concede 
ought to be exercised in good faith, and without Vexatious 
abuses.” 

“ But, surely, you must think that in carrying off a refugee 
from justice "we have placed ourselves in the wrong, and cannot 
object, as a principle, to the poor man’s being taken back again 
into the country from which he has escaped, however much we 
may pity the hardships of the particular case ? ” 

“ I much question if Captain Truck will be disposed to reason 
so vaguely. In the first place, he will be apt to say that his 
ship was regularly cleared, and that he had authority^to sail ; 
that in permitting the officer to search his vessel, while in 
British waters, he did all that could be required of him, the law 
not compelling him to be either a bailiff or an informer ; that 
the process issued was to take Davis, and not to detain the 
Montauk ; that, once out of British waters, American law 
governs, and the English functionary became an intruder of 
whom he had every right to rid himself, and that the process 
by which he got his power to act at all became impotent the 
instant it was without the jurisdiction under which it was 
granted.” 

“ I think you will find the captain of yonder cruiser indis- 
posed to admit this doctrine.” 

“ That is not impossible ; men often preferring abuses to 
being thwarted in their wishes. But the captain of yonder 
cruiser might as well go on board a foreign vessel of war, and 
pretend to a right to command her, in virtue of the commission 
by which he commands his own ship, as to pretend to find 
reason or law in doing what you seem to predict.” 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


58 


“ I rejoice to hear that the poor man cannot now be torn 
from his wife ! ” exclaimed Eve. 

“You then incline to the doctrine of Mr. Blunt, Miss 
Effingham ? ” observed the other controversialist a little re- 
proachfully. “ I fear you make it a national question.” 

“ Perhaps I have done what all seem to have done, permit- 
ted sympathy to get the better of reason. And yet it would 
require strong proof to persuade me that villanous-looking at- 
torney was engaged in a good cause, and that meek and warm- 
hearted wife in a bad one ! ” 

Both the gentlemen smiled, and both turned to the fair 
speaker, as if inviting her to proceed. But Eve checked her- 
self, having already said more than became her, in her own 
opinion. 

“ I had hoped to find an ally in you, Mr. Blunt, to sustain 
the claim of England to seize her own seamen when found on 
board of vessels of another nation,” resumed Mr. Sharp, when 
a respectful pause had shown both the young men that they 
need expect nothing more from their fair companion ; “ but I 
fear I must set you down as belonging to those who wish to 
see the power of England reduced, coute qui coute .” 

This was received as it was meant, *>r as a real opinion 
veiled under pleasantry. 

“ I certainly do not wish to see her power maintained, coute 
qui coute, returned the other, laughing ; “and in this opinion, I 
believe, J may claim both these ladies as allies.” 

“ Certaine?nent /” exclaimed Mademoiselle Viefville, who 
was a living proof that the feelings created by centuries of an- 
imosity are not to be subdued by a few flourishes of the pen. 

“ As for me, Mr. Sharp, ” added Eve, “ you may suppose, 
being an American girl, I cannot subscribe to the right of any 
country to do us injustice; but I beg you will not include me 
among those who wish to see the land of my ancestors wronged, 
in aught that she may rightfully claim as her due. ” 

“ This is powerful support, and I shall rally to the rescue. 
Seriously, then, will you allow me to inquire, sir, if you think 
the right of England to the services of her seamen can be 
denied ? ” 

“ Seriously, then, Mr. Sharp, you must permit me to ask if 
you mean, by force, or by reason ? ” 

“ By the latter, certainly.” 

“ I think you have taken the weak side of the English ar- 
gument; the nature of the service that the subject, or the 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


59 

citizen, as it is now the fashion to say at Paris, mademoi* 
selle — ” 

“ — Tant pis, ” muttered the governess. 

“ — Owes his government,” continued the young man, 
slightly glancing at Eve, at the interruption, “is purely a point 
of internal regulation. In England there is compulsory service 
for seamen without restriction, or what is much the same, 
without an equal protection ; in France, it is compulsory service 
on a general plan ; in America’ as respects seamen, the service 
is still voluntary.” 

“ Your pardon ; — will the institutions of America permit 
impressment at all ? ” 

“ I should think, not indiscriminate impressment ; though 
I do not see why laws might not be enacted to compel drafts 
for the ships of war, as for the army: but this is a point that 
some of the professional gentlemen on board, if there be any 
such, might better answer than myself.” 

“ The skill with which you have touched on these subjects 
to-night, had made me hope to have found such a one in you : 
for to a traveller, it is always desirable to enter a country with 
a little preparation, and a ship might offer as much temptation 
to teach as to learn.” 

“ If you suppose me an American lawyer, you give me credit 
for more than I can lay claim to.” 

As he hesitated, Eve wondered whether the slight emphasis 
he had laid on the two words we have italicized, was heaviest 
on that which denoted the country, or on that which denoted 
the profession. \ 

“ I have been much in America, and have paid a little at- 
tention to the institutions, but should be sorry to mislead you 
into the belief that I am at. all infallible on such points,” Mr. 
Blunt continued. 

“ You were about to touch on impressment.” 

“ Simply to say that it is a municipal national power ; one 
in no degree dependent on general principles, and that it can 
properly be exercised in no situation in which the exercise of 
municipal or national powers is forbidden. I can believe that 
this power may be exercised on board American ships in British 
waters — or at least, that it is a more plausible right in such 
situations ; but I cannot think it can be rightfully exercised 
anywhere else. I do not think England would submit to such 
a practice an hour, reversing the case, and admitting her present 
strength : and an appeal of this sort is a pretty good test of a 
principle.” 


6o 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


“ Ay, ay, what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, 
as Yattel says,” interupted Captain Truck, who had overheard 
the last speech or two : “ not that he says this in so many words, 
but then, he has the sentiment at large scattered throughout 
his writings. For that matter, there is little that can be said 
on a subject that he does not put before his readers, as plainly 
as Beachy Head lies before the navigator of the British Chan- 
nel. With Bowditch and Vattelj a man might sail round the 
globe, and little fear of a bad landfall, or a mistake in princi- 
ples. My present object is to tell you, ladies, that the steward 
has reported the supper in waiting for the honor of your pres- 
ence.” 

Before quitting the deck, the party inquired into the state 
of the chase, and the probable intentions of the sloop-of-war. 

“We are now on the great highway of nations,” returned 
Mr. Truck, “ and it is my intention to travel it without jostling, 
or being jostled. As far the sloop, she is standing out under 
a press of canvas, and we are standing from her, in nearly a 
straight line, in like circumstances. She is some eight or ten 
miles astern of us, v and there is an old saying among seamen 
that ‘ a stern chase is a long chase.’ I do not think our case is 
about to make an exception to the rule. I shall not pretend to 
say what will be the upshot of the matter ; but there is not the 
ship in the British navy that can gain ten miles on the M'ontauk, 
in her present trim, and with this breeze, in as many hours ; 
so we are quit of her for the present.” 

The last words were uttered just as Eve put her foot on the 
step to descend into the cabin. 


HOME WARD BOUND. 


61 


CHAPTER VI.* 

Trin. Stephano, — 

Steph. Doth thy other mouth call me ? Mercy ! Mercy ! 

Tempest. 

The life of a packet steward is one of incessant mixing and 
washing, of interrogations and compoundings, all in a space of 
about twelve feet square. These functionaries, usually clever 
mulattoes who have caught the civilization of the kitchen, are 
busy from morning till night in their cabins, preparing dishes, 
issuing orders, regulating courses, starting corks, and answering 
questions. Apatvy is the great requisite for the station ; for 
woe betide the wretch who fancies any modicum of zeal, or 
good nature, can alone fft him for the occupation. From the 
moment the ship ^sails until that in which a range of the cable 
is overhauled, or the chain is rowsed up in readiness to anchor, 
no smile illumines his face, no tone issues from his, voice while 
on duty, but that of flogged routine — of submission to those 
above, or of snarling authority to those beneath him. As 
the hour for the “drink gelt,” or “ buona mana,” approaches, 
however, he becomes gracious and smiling. On his first ap- 
pearance in the pantry of a morning, he has a regular series of 
questions to answer, and for which, like the dutiful Zeluco, 
who wrote all his letters to his mother on the same day, varying 
the dates to suit the progress of time, he not unfrequently has 
a regular set of answers cut and dried, in his gastronomical 
mind. “ How’s the wind ? ” “ How’s the weather ? ” “ How’s 
her head ? ” all addressed to his standing almanac, are mere 
matters of course, for which he is quite prepared, though it is 
by no means unusual to hear him ordering a subordinate to go 
on deck, after the answer is given with a view to ascertain the 
facts. It is only when the voice of the captain is heard from 
his stateroom, that he conceives himself bound to be very 
particular, though such is the tact of all connected with ships, 
that they instinctively detect the “ know nothings,” who are 
uniformly treated with an indifference suited to their culpable 
ignorance. Even the “ old salt ” on the forecastle has an 
instinct for a brother tar, though a passenger, and a due respect 
is paid to Neptune in answering his inquiries, while half the 
time the maiden traveller meets with a grave equivoque, a 
marvel, or a downright mystification. 

On the first morning out, the steward of the Montauk com- 


62 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


menced the dispensation of his news ; for no sooner was he 
heard rattling the glasses, and shuffling plates in the pantry, 
than the attack was b6gun by Mr. Dodge, in whom “ a laudable 
thirst after knowledge,” as exemplified in putting questions, 
was rather a besetting principle. This gentleman had come 
out in the ship, as has been mentioned, and unfortunately for 
the interest of his propensity, not only the steward, but all on 
board, had, as it is expressed in slang language, early taken 
the measure of his foot. The result of his present application 
was the following brief dialogue, — 

“ Steward,” called out Mr. Dodge, through the blinds of 
his stateroom ; “ whereabouts are we ? ” 

“ In the British Channel, sir.” 

“ I might have guessed that myself.” 

“ So I s’pose, sir ; nobody is better at guessing and di- 
wining than Mr. Dodge.” 

“ But in what part of the Channel are we,- Saunders ? ” 

“ About the middle, sir.” 

“ How far have we come to-night ? n 
“ From. Portsmouth Roads to this place, sir.” 

Mr. Dodge was satisfied, and the steward, who would not 
have dared to be so explicit with any other cabin-passenger, 
continued coolly to mix an omelette. The next attack was 
made from the same room, by Sir George Templemore. 

“ Steward, my good fellow, do you happen to know where- 
abouts we are ! ” 

“ Certainly, sir ; the land is still werry obwious.” 

“ Are we getting on cleverly ? ” 

“ Nicely, sir with a mincing emphasis on the first w T ord, 
that betrayed there was a little waggery about the grave-looking 
mulatto. 

“ And the sloop of war, steward ? ” 

“ Nicely too, sir.” 

There w>as a shuffling in the stateroom, followed by a silence. 
The door of Mr. Sharp’s room w r as now opened an inch or two, 
and the following questions, issued through the crevices, — 

“ Is the wind favorable, steward? ” 

“ Just her character, sir.” 

“ Do you mean that the wind is favorable ? ” 

“ For the Montauk, sir ; she’s a persuader in this breeze.” 
“ But is she going in the direction w r e wish ? ” 

“ If the gentleman wishes to perambulate America, it is 
probable he will get there with a little patience.” 

Mr. Sharp pulled to his door, and ten minutes passed with 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


63 

out further questions ; the steward beginning to hope the morn- 
ing catechism was over, though he grumbled a wish that gentle- 
men would “ turn out ” and take a look for themselves. Now, 
up to this moment, Saunders knew no more than those who 
had just been questioning him of the particular situation of the 
ship, in which he floated as indifferent to the whereabouts and 
the winds, as men sail in the earth along its orbit, without be- 
thinking them of parallaxes, nodes, ecliptics, and solstices. 
Aware that it was about time for the captain to be heard, he 
sent a subordinate on deck, with a view to be ready to meet the 
usual questions from his commander. A couple of minutes were 
sufficient to put him au courant of the real state of things. The 
next door that opened was that of Paul Blunt, however, who 
thrust his head into the cabin, with all his dark curls in the con- 
fusion of a night scene. 

“ Steward ! ” 

“ Sir.” 

“ How’s the wind ? ” 

“ Quite exhilarating, sir.” 

“ From what quarter? ” 

“ About south, sir.” 

“ Is there much, of it ? ” 

“ A prewailing breeze, sir.” 

“ And the sloop ? ” 

“ She’s to leeward, sir, operating along as fast as she can.” 
“Steward!’” 

“ Sir ? ” stepping hurriedly out of his pantry, in order to hear 
more distinctly. 

“ Under what sail are we ? ” 

“ Top-gallant sails, sir.” 

“ How’s her head ? ” 

“ West southwest, sir.” 

“ Delicious ! Any news of the rover ? ” 

“ Hull down to leeward, sir, and on our quarter.” 

“ Staggering along, eh ? ” 

“ Quite like a disguised person, sir.” 

“ Better still. Hurry along that breakfast of yours, sir : I 
am as hungry as a Troglodyte.” 

The honest captain had caught this word from a recent 
treatise against agrarianism,' and having an acquired taste for 
orders in one sense, at least, he flattered himself with being 
what is called a Conservative, in other words, he had a strong 
relish for that maxim of the Scotch freebooter, which is rendered 
into English by the homely aphorism of “keep what you’ve got, 
and get what you can.” 


64 


HOME WARD BOUND. 


A cessation of the interrogatories took place, and soon after 
the passengers began to appear in the cabin, one by one. As 
the first step is almost invariably to go on deck, especially in 
good weather, in a few minutes nearly all of the last night’s 
party were again assembled in the open air, a balm that none 
can appreciate but those who have experienced the pent atmo- 
sphere of a crowded vessel. The steward had rendered a faith- 
ful account of the state of the weather to the captain, who was 
now seen standing in the main rigging, looking at the clouds 
to windward, and at the sloop of war to leeward, in ^ie knowing 
manner of one who was making comparisons materially to the 
disadvantage of the latter. 

The day was fine, and the Montauk, bearing her canvas 
nobly, was, to use the steward’s language, also staggering along, 
under everything that would draw, from her topgallant-sails 
down, with the wind near two points forward of the beam, or 
on an easy bowline. As there was but little sea, her rate was 
quite nine knots, though varying with the force of the wind. 
The cruiser had certainly followed them thus far, though doubts 
began to be entertained whether she was in chase, or merely 
bound like themselves to the westward ; a course common to 
all vessels that wish to clear the Channel, even when it is intend- 
ed to go south, as the rocks and tides of the French coast are 
inconvenient neighbors in long nights. 

“ Who knows, after all, that the cutter which tried to board 
us,” asked the captain aloud, “ belongs to the ship to lee- 
ward ? ” 

“ I know the boat, sir,” answered the second mate ; “ and 
the ship is the Foam.” 

“ Let her foam away, then, if she wishes to speak us. Has 
any one tried her bearings since daylight ? ” 

“ We set her by the compass at six o’clock, sir, and she has 
not varied her bearing, as far as from one belaying pin to another, 
in three hours ; but her hull rises fast : you can now make out 
her ports, and at daylight the bottom of her courses dipped.” 

“ Ay, ay, she is a light-going Foam, then ! If that is the 
case, she will be alongside of us by night.” 

“In which event, captain, you will be obliged to give him a 
broadside of Vattel,” threw in John Effiingham, in his cool 
manner. 

“ If that will answer his errand, he is welcome to as much 
as he can carry. I begin to doubt, gentlemen, whether this 
fellow be not in earnest : in which case you may have an op- 
portunity of witnessing how ships are handled, when seamen 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


65 

have their management. I have no objection to setting the ex- 
perience of a poor come-and-go sort of a fellow, like myself, in 
opposition to the geometry and Hamilton Moore of a young 
man-of-war’s man. I dare say, now, yonder chap is a lord, or a 
lord’s progeny, while poor Jack Truck is just as you see him.” 

“ Do you not think half an- hour of compliance on our part 
might bring the matter to an amicable conclusion at once ? ” 
said Paul Blunt. “ Were we to run down to him, the object of 
his pursuit could be determined in a few minutes.” 

“ What ! and abandon poor Davis to the rapacity of that 
rascally attorney ? ” generously exclaimed Sir George Temple- 
more. “ I would prefer paying the port charges myself, run 
into the handiest French port, and let the honest fellow escape !” 

“ There is no probability that a cruiser would attempt to 
take a mere debtor from a foreign vessel on the open sea.” 

“ If there were no tobacco in the world, Mr. Blunt, I might 
feel disposed to waive the categories, and show the gentleman 
that courtesy,” returned the captain, who was preparing another 
cigar. “ But while the cruiser might not feel authorized to take 
an absconding debtor from this vessel, he might feel otherwise 
on the subject of tobacco, provided there has been an infor- 
mation for smuggling.” 

Captain Truck then explained, that the subordinates of the 
packets frequently got their ships into trouble, by taking ad- 
ventures of the forbidden weed clandestinely into European 
ports, and that his ship, in such circumstances, would lose her 
place in the line, and derange all the plans of the company to 
which she belonged. He did the English government the 
justice to say, that it had always manifested a liberal disposi- 
tion not to punish the innocent for the guilty ; but were any 
such complaints actually in the wind, he thought he could settle 
it with much less loss to himself on his return, than on the day 
of sailing. While this explanation was delivered, a group had 
clustered round the speaker, leaving Eve and her party on the 
opposite side of the deck. 

“ This last speech of Mr. Blunt’s quite unsettles my opinion 
of his national character, as Vattel and our worthy captain would 
say,” remarked Mr. Sharp. “ Last night, I set him down as a 
right loyal American ; but I think it would not be natural for a 
thorough-going countryman of yours, Miss Effingham, to pro- 
pose this act of courtesy to a cruiser of King William.” 

“ How far any countrymen of mine, thorough-going or not, 
have reason to manifest extreme courtesy to any of your cruis- 
ers,” Eve laughingly replied, “ I shall leave Captain Truck to 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


66 

V 

say. Bui, with you, I have long been at a loss to determine 
whether Mr. Blunt is an Englishman or an American, or in- 
deed, whether he be either.” 

- “ Long, Miss Effingham ! He then has the honor of being 
well known to you ? ” 

Eve answered steadily, though the color mounted to her 
brow; but whether from the impetuous exclamation of her 
companion, or from any feeling connected with the subject of 
their conversation, the young man was at a loss te discover. 

“ Long, as girls of twenty count time — some four or five 
years ; but you may judge how well, when I tell you I am 
ignorant of his country even.” 

“ And may I venture to ask which do you, yourself, give 
him credit for being, an American or an Englishman ? ” 

Eve’s bright eyes laughed, as she answered, “ You have put 
the question with so much finesse, and with a politeness so 
well managed, that I should indeed be churlish to refuse an 
answer : — Nay, do not interrupt me, and spoil all the good you 
have done by unnecessary protestations of sincerity.” 

“ All I wish to say is, to ask an explanation of a finesse, of 
which I am quite as innocent as of any wish to draw down 
upon myself the visitations of your displeasure.” 

“ Do you, then, really conceive it a credit to be an Amer- 
ican ? ” 

“ Nobody of less modesty than yourself, Miss Effingham, 
under all the circumstances, would dream of- asking the ques- 
tion.” 

“ I thank you for the civility, which must be taken as it is 
offered, I presume, quite as a thing en regie ; but to leave our 
fine opinions of each other, as well as our prejudices, out of the 
question — ” 

“ You will excuse me if I object to this, for I feel my good 
sense implicated. You can hardly attribute to me opinions so 
utterly unreasonable, so unworthy of a gentleman— so un- 
founded, in short ! Am I not incurring all the risks and hard- 
ships of a long sea-voyage, expressly to visit your great country, 
and, I trust, to improve by its example and society ? ” 

“ Since you appear to wish it, Mr. Sharp — ” Eve glanced 
her playful eye up at him as she pronounced the name — “ I 
will be as credulous as a believer in animal magnetism : and 
that, I fancy, is pushing credulity to the verge of reason. It is 
now settled between us, that you do conceive it an honor to be 
an American, born, educated, and by extraction.” 

“ All of whifch being the case with Miss Effingham.” 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


67 

“ All but the second ; indeed, they write me fearful things 
concerning this European education of mine ; some even go so 
far as to assure me I shall be quite unfitted to live in the society 
to which I properly belong ! ” 

“ Europe will be rejoiced to receive you back again, in that 
case ; and no European more so than myself.” 

The beautiful color deepened a little on the cheek of Eve, 
but she made no immediate reply. 

“ To return to our subject,” she at length said ; “ Were I 
required to say, I should not be able to decide on the country 
of Mr. Blunt ; nor have I ever met with any one who appeared 
to know. I saw him first in Germany, where he circulated in 
the best company ; though no one seemed acquainted with his 
history, even there. He made a good figure ; was quite at his 
ease ; speaks several languages almost as well as the natives 
of the different countries themselves ; and, altogether, was a 
subject of curiosity with those who had leisure to think of 
anything but their own dissipation and folly.” 

Mr. Sharp listened with obvious gravity to the fair speaker, 
and had not her own eyes been fastened on the deck, she 
might have detected the lively interest betrayed in his. Per- 
haps the feeling which was at the bottom of all this, to a slight 
degree, influenced his answer. 

“ Quite an Admirable Crichton ! ” 

“ I do not say that, though certainly expert in tongues. My 
own rambling life has made me acquainted with a few lan- 
guages, and I do assure you, this gentleman speaks three or 
four with almost equal readiness, and with no perceptible accent. 
I remember at Vienna many even believed him to be a German.” 

“ What with the name of Blunt ? ” 

Eve smiled, and her companion, who silently watched every 
expression of her varying countenance, as if to read her 
thoughts, noted it. 

“Names signify little in these migratory times,” returned 
the young lady. “ You have but to imagine a von before it, 
and it would pass at Dresden, or at Berlin. Von Blunt, der Ed- 
elgeborne, Graft Von Blunt, Hofrath , or, if you like it better, 
Geheimer Rath mit Excellenz und eure GnadenE 

“Or, B aw- Berg- Veg-Inspect-Substitut! ” added Mr. Sharp, 
laughing. “ No, no ! this will hardly pass. Blunt is a good old 
English name ; but it has not finesse enough for Italian, German, 
Spanish, or anything else but John Bull and his family.” 

“ I see no necessity, for my part, for all this Bluntishness ; 
the gentleman may think frankness a good travelling quality.” 


68 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


“ Surely, he has not concealed his real name ! ” 

“ Mr, Sharp, Mr. Blunt, Mr. Blunt, Mr. Sharp ; ” rejoined 
Eve, laughing until her bright eyes danced with pleasure. 
“ There would be something ridiculous, indeed, in seeing so 
much of the finesse of a master of ceremonies subjected to so 
profound a mystification ! I have been told that passing in- 
troductions amount to little among you men, and this would be 
a case in point.” 

“ I would I dared ask if it be really so.” 

“ Were I to be guilty of indiscretion in another’s case, 
3'ou would not fail to distrust me in your own. I am, more- 
over, a protestant, and abjure auricular confessions.” 

“ You will not frown if I inquire whether the rest of your 
party remember him ? ” 

“ My father, Mademoiselle Viefville, and the excellent Nanny 
Sidley, again ; but, I think, none other of 'the servants, as he 
never visited us. Mr. John Effingham was travelling in Egypt 
at the time, and did not see him at all, and we only met in gen- 
eral society ; Nanny’s acquaintance was merely that of seeing 
him check his horse in the Prater, to speak to us of a morn- 
ing-’' 

“ Poor fellow, I pity him ; he has, at least, never had the 
happiness of strolling on the shores of Como and the islands 
of Laggo Maggiore in your company, or of studying the wonders 
of the Pitti and the Vatican.” 

“ If I must confess all, he journeyed with us on foot and 
in boats an entire month, among the wonders of the Oberland, 
and across the Wallenstadt. This was at a time when we had 
-no one with us but the regular guides and the German courier, 
who was discharged in London.” 

“ Were it not for the impropriety of tampering with a 
servant, I would cross the deck and question your good Nanny, 
this moment ! ” said Mr. Sharp with playful menace. “ Of 
all torture, that of suspense is the hardest to be borne.” 

“ I grant you full permission, and acquit you of all sins, 
whether of disrespect, meanness, impertinence, ungentleman- 
like practices, or any other vice that may be thought to attend 
and characterize the act.” 

“ This formidable array of qualities would check the curios-- 
ity of a village gossip ! ” 

“ It has an effect I did not intend, then ; I wish you to put 
your threat in execution. 

“ Not seriously, surely ? ” 

“ Never more so. Take a favorable moment to speak to 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


69 

the good soul, as an old acquaintance : she remembers you 
well, and by a little of that interrogating management you 
possess, a favorable opportunity may occur to bring in the 
other subject. In the mean time, I will glance over the pages 
of this book.” 

As Eve began to read, Mr. Sharp perceived she was in 
earnest, and hesitating a moment, in doubt of the propriety of 
the act, he yielded to her expressed desire, and strolled carelessly 
towards the faithful old domestic. He addressed' her in- 
differently at first, until believing he might go further, he 
smilingly observed that he believed he had seen her in Italy. 
To this Nanny quietly assented, and when he indirectly added 
that it was under another name, she smiled, but merely in- 
timated her consciousness of the fact, by a quick glance of the 
eye. 

“ You know that travellers assume names for the sake of 
avoiding curiosity,” he added, “ and I hope you will not betray 
me.” 

“You need not fear me, sir; I meddle with little besides 
my own duty, and so long’as Miss Eve appears to think there 
is no harm in it, I will venture to say it is no more than a 
gentleman’s caprice.” 

“Why, that is the very word she applied to it herself! You 
have caught the term from Miss Effingham.” 

“ Well, sir, and if I have, it is caught from one who deals 
little harm to any.” 

“ I believe I am not the only one on board who travels 
under a false name, if the truth were known ? ” 

Nanny looked first at the deck, then at her interrogator’s 
face, next toward Mr. Blunt, withdrawing her eye again, as if 
guilty of an indiscretion, and finally at the sails. Perceiving 
her embarrassment, respecting her discretion, and ashamed of 
the task he had undertaken, Mr. Sharp said a few civil things 
suited to the condition of the woman, and sauntering about the 
deck for a short time, to avoid suspicion, soon found himself 
once more alongside of Eve. The latter inquired with her 
eyes, a little exulting perhaps, concerning his success. 

“ I have failed,” he said ; “ but something must be ascribed 
to my own awkward diffidence ; for there is so much meanness 
in tampering with a servant, that I had not the heart to push 
my questions, even while I am devoured by curiosity.” 

“ Your fastidiousness is not a disease with which all on 
board are afflicted, for there is at least one grand inquisitor 
among us, by what I can learn ; so take heed to your sins, and 


7 ° 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


above all, be very guarded of old letters, marks, and other tell- 
tales, that usually expose impostors.” 

“ To all that, I believe, sufficient care has already been had, 
by that other Dromio, my own man.” 

“ And in what way do you share the name between you ? Is 
it Dromio of Syracuse, and Dromio of Ephesus ? or does John 
call himself Fitz-Edward, or Mortimer, or De Courcy ? ” 

“ He has complaisance enough to make the passage with 
nothing blit a Christian name, I believe. In truth, it was by a 
mere accident that I turned usurper in this way. He took the 
stateroom for me, and being required to give a name, he gave 
his own, as usual. When I went to the docks to look at the 
ship, I was saluted as Mr. Sharp, and then the conceit took me 
of trying how it would wear for a month or six weeks. I would 
give the world to know if the Geheimer Rath got his cognomen 
in the same honest manner.” 

“ I think not, as his man goes by the pungent title of 
Pepper. Unless poor John should have occasion for two names 
during the passage, you are reasonably safe. And still, I think,” 
continued Eve, biting her lips, like one who deliberated, “ if it 
were any longer polite to bet, Mr. John Effingham would hazard 
all the French gloves in his trunks, against all the English 
finery in yours, that the inquisitor just, hinted at gets at your 
secret before we arrive. Perhaps I ought rather to say, ascer- 
tains that you are not Mf. Sharp, and that Mr. Blunt is.” 

Her companion, entreated her to point out the person to 
whom she had given the sobriquet she mentioned. 

“ Accuse me of giving nicknames to no one. The man has 
this title from Mademoiselle Viefville, and his own great deeds. 
It is a certain Mr. Steadfast Dodge, who, it seems, knows some- 
thing of us, from the circumstance of living in the same county, 
and who, from knowing a little in this comprehensive manner, 
is desirous of knowing a great deal more.” 

“ The natural result' of all useful knowledge.” 

“Mr. John Effingham, who is apt to fling sarcasms at all 
lands, his native country included, affirms that this gentleman 
is but a fair specimen of many more it will be our fortune to 
meet in America. If so, we shall not long be strangers ; for 
according to Mademoiselle Viefville and my good Nanny, he 
has already communicated to them a thousand interesting par- 
ticulars of himself, in exchange for which he asks no more than 
the reasonable compensation of having all his questions con- 
cerning us truly answered.” 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


7 1 

“ This is certainly alarming intelligence, and I shall take 
heed accordingly.” 

“ If he discover that John is without a surname, I am far 
from certain he will not prepare to have him arraigned for some 
high crime or misdemeanour; for Mr. John Effingham main- 
tains that the besetting propensity of all this class is to divine 
the worst the moment their imaginations cease to be fed with 
facts. All is false with them, and it is flattery or accusation.” 

The approach of Mr. Blunt caused a cessation or the dis- 
course, Eve betraying' a slight degree of sensitiveness about 
admitting him to share in these little asides, a circumstance 
that her companion observed, not without satisfaction. The 
discourse now became general, the person who joined them 
amusing the others with an account of several proposals 
already made by Mr. Dodge, which, as he expressed it, in 
making the relation, manifested the strong community charac- 
teristics of an American. The first proposition was to take a 
vote to ascertain whether Mr. Van Buren or Mr. Harrison was 
the greatest favorite of the passengers; and, on this being 
defeated, owing to the total ignorance of so many on board of 
both the parties he had named, he had suggested the expedi- 
ency of establishing a society to ascertain daily the precise 
position of the ship. Captain Truck had thrown cold water on 
the last proposal, however, by adding to it what, among legis- 
lators, is called a “ rider ; ” he having dryly suggested that one 
of the duties of the said society should be to ascertain also the 
practicability of wading across the Atlantic. 


CHAPTER VII. 

When clouds are seen, wise men put on their cloaks, 

When great leaves fall, then winter is at hand ; 

When the sun sets, who doth not look for night ? 

Untimely storms make men expect a dearth : 

* All may be well ; but if God sort it so, 

’Tis more than we deserve, or I expect. 

Richard III. 

These conversations, however, were mere episodes of the 
great business of*the passage. Throughout the morning, the 
master was busy in rating his mates, giving sharp reprimands 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


72 

to the stewards and cooks, overhauling the logline, introducing 
the passengers, seeing to the stowage of the anchors, in getting 
down the signal-pole, throwing in touches of Vattel, and other- 
wise superintending duty, and dispensing opinions. All this 
time, the cat in the grass does not watch the bird that hops 
along the ground with keener vigilance than he kept his eye on 
the Foam. To an ordinary observer, the two ships presented 
the familiar spectacle of vessels sailing in the same direction, 
with a vfty equal rate of speed ; and as the course was that 
necessary to clear the Channel, most of the passengers, and, 
indeed, the greater part of the crew, began to think the cruiser, 
like themselves, was merely bound to the westward. Mr. 
Truck, on the contrary, judging by signs and movements that 
more naturally suggested themselves to one accustomed to 
direct the evolutions of a ship, and to reason on their objects, 
than to the mere subjects of his will, thought differently. To 
him, the motive of the smallest change on board the sloop-of- 
war was as intelligible as if it had been explained in words, 
and he even foresaw many that were about to take place. Be- 
fore noon, the Foam had got fairly abeam, and Mr. Leach, 
pointing out the circumstance, observed, that if her wish was 
to overhaul them, she ought then to tack ; it being a rule among 
seamen, that the pursuing vessel should turn to windward as 
often as she found herself nearest to her chase. But the ex- 
perience of Captain Truck taught him better ; the tide was 
setting into the Channel on the flood, and the wind enabled 
both ships to take the current on their lee-bows, a power that 
forced them up to windward ; whereas, by tacking, the Foam 
would receive the force of the stream on her weather broad- 
side, or so nearly so, as to sweep her farther astern than her 
difference in speed could easily repair. 

“ She has the heels of us, and she weathers on us, as it is,” 
grumbled the master ; “ and that might satisfy a man less 
modest. I have led the gentleman such a tramp already that 
he will be in none of the best humors when he comes alongside, 
and we may make up our minds on seeing Portsmouth again 
before we see New York, unless a slant of wind, or the night, 
serves us a good turn. I trust, Leach, you have not been 
destroying your prospects in life by looking too wistfully at a 
tobacco-field ? ” 

“ Not I, sir ; and if you will give me leave to say it, Cap- 
tain Truck, I do not think a plug has been landed from the 
ship, which did not go ashore in a bo?m-fide *tobacco-box, that 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


73 

might appear in any court in England. The people will swear, 
to a man, that this is true’” 

“ Ay, ay ! and the Barons of the Exchequer would be the 
greatest fools in England not to believe them. If there has 
been no defrauding the revenue, why does a cruiser follow this 
ship, a regular packet, to sea ? ” 

“ This affair of the steerage passenger, Davis, sir, is prob- 
ably the cause. The man may be heavily in debt, Qr possibly 
a defaulter ; for these rogues, when they break down, often 
fall lower than the ’twixt decks of a ship like this.” 

“ This will do to put the quarter-deck and cabin in good 
humor at sailing, and give them something to open an acquaint- 
ance with ; but it is sawdust to none but. your new beginners. 
I have known that Seal this many a year, and the rogue never 
yet had a case that touched the quarterdeck. It is as the man 
and his wife say, and I’ll not give them up, out here in' blue 
water, for as much foam as lies on Jersey beach after an easterly 
blow. It will not be any of the family of Davis that will satisfy 
yonder wind-eater ; but he will lay his hand on the whole family 
of the Montauk, leaving them the agreeable alternative of going 
back to Portsmouth in his pleasant society, or getting out here 

in midchannel, and wading ashore as best they can. D me ! 

if I believe, Leach, that Vattel will bear the fellow out in it, 
even if there has been a whole hogshead of the leaves trundled 
ipto his island without a permit ! ” 

To this Mr. Leach had no encouraging answer to make, for, 
like most* of his class, held practical force in much greater 
respect than the abstractions of books. He deemed it prudent, 
therefore, to be silent, though greatly doubting the efficacy of 
a quotation from any authority on board, when fairly put in 
opposition to a written order from the admiral at Portsmouth, 
or even to a signal sent down from the Admiralty at London. 

The day wore away, making a gradual change in the relative 
positions of the two ships, though so slowly, as to give Captain 
Truck strong hopes of being able to dodge his pursuer in the 
coming night, which promised to be dark and squally. To 
return to Portsmouth was his full intention but not until he 
had first delivered his freight and passengers in New York ; 
for, like all men bound up body and soul in the performance of 
an especial duty, he looked on a frustration of this immediate 
obejct as a much greater calamity than even a double amount 
of more remote evil. Besides, he felt a strong reliance 
on the liberality of the English authorities in the end, and had 
little doubt of being able to extricate himself and his ship from 


74 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


any penalties to which the indiscretion or cupidity of his sub- 
ordinates might have rendered him liable. 

Just as the sun dipped into the watery tract of the Mon- 
tauk, most of the cabin passengers again appeared on deck, to 
take a look at the situation of the two vessels, and to form their 
own conjectures as to the probable result of the adventure. By 
this time the Foam had tacked twice, once to weather upon the 
wake of her chase, and again to resume her line of pursuit. 
The packet was too good a ship to be easily overtaken, and the 
cruiser was now nearly hull-down astern, but evidently coming 
up at a rate that would bring her alongside before morning. 
The wind blew in squalls, a circumstance that always aids a 
vessel of war, as the greater number of her hands enables them 
to make and shorten sail with ease and rapidity. 

“ This unsettled weather is as much as a mile an hour 
against us,’’ observed Captain Truck, who was far from pleased 
at the fact of his being outsailed by anything that floated ; 
“ and, if truth must be said, I think that fellow has somewhere 
about half a knot the best of it, in the way of foot, on a bowline 
and with this breeze. But he has no cargo in, and they trim 
their boats like steelyards. Give us more wind, or a freer, 
and I would leave him to digest his orders, as a shark digests 
a marling-spike, or a ringbolt, notwithstanding all his advan- 
tages ; for little good would it then do him to be trying to run 
into the wind’s eye, like a steam-tug. As it is, we must submit 
We are certainly in a category, and be d d to it ! ” 

It was one of those wild-looking sunsets that are so fre- 
quent in the autumn, in which appearances are worse, perhaps, 
than the reality. The ships were now . so near the Chops of 
the Channel that no land was visible, and the entire horizon 
presented that chill and wintry aspect that belongs to gloomy 
and driving clouds, to which .streaks of dull light serve more 
to give an appearance of infinite space than any of the relief 
of brightness. It was a dreary nightfall to a landsman’s eye ; 
though they who better understood the signs of the heavens, as 
they are exhibited on the ocean, saw little more than the prom- 
ise of obscurity, and the usual hazards of darkness in a much- 
frequented sea. 

“ This will be a dirty night,” observed John Effingham, 
“ and we may have occasion to bring in some of the flaunting 
vanity of the ship, ere another morning returns.” 

“ The vessel appears to be in good hands,” returned Mr. 
Effingham : “ I have watched them narrowly ; for, I know not 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


75 

why, I have felt more anxiety on the occasion of this passage 
than on any of the nine I have already made.” 

As he spoke, the tender father unconsciously bent his eyes 
on Eve, who leaned affectionately on his arm, steadying her 
light form against the pitching of the vessel. She understood 
his feelings better than he did himself, possibly, since, accus- 
tomed to his fondest care from childhood, she well knew that 
he seldom thought of others, or even of himself, while her own 
wants or safety appealed to his unwearying love. 

“ Father,” she said, smiling in his wistful face, “ we have 
seen more troubled waters than these, far, and in a much 
frailer vessel. Do you not remember the Wallenstadt and its 
miserable skiff? where I have heard you say there was really 
danger, though we escaped from it all with a little fright.” 

“Perfectly well do I recollect it, love, nor have I forgotten 
our brave companion, and his good service, at that critical mo- 
ment. But for his stout arm and timely succor, we might not, 
as- you say, have been quit for the fright.” 

Although Mr. Effingham looked only at his daughter, while 
speaking, Mr. Sharp, who listened with interest, saw the quick, 
retreating glance of Eve at Paul Blunt, and felt something like 
a chill in his blood as he perceived that her own cheeks seemed 
to reflect the glow which appeared on that of the young man. 
He alone observed this secret evidence of common interest in 
some event in which both had evidently been actors, those 
around them being too much occupied in the arrangements of 
the ship, and too little suspicious, to hepd the trifling circum- 
stance. Captain Truck had ordered all hands called, to make 
sail, to the surprise of even the crew. The vessel, at the mo- 
ment, was staggering along under as much canvas as she could 
apparently bear, and the mates looked aloft with inquiring 
eyes, as if to ask what more could be done. 

The master soon removed all doubts. With a rapidity that 
is not common in merchant ships, but which is usual enough 
in the packets, the lower studding-sails, and two topmast-stud- 
ding-sails were prepared and made ready for hoisting. As 
soon as the words “ all ready ” were uttered, the helm was 
put up, the sails were set, and the Montauk was rqnning with 
a free wind towards the narrow passage between the Scilly 
Islands and the Land’s End. Captain Truck was an expert 
channel pilot, from long practice, and keeping the run of the 
tides in his head, he had loosely calculated that his vessel had 
so much offing as, with a free wind, and the great progress she 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


76 

had made in the last twenty-four hours, would enable him to 
lay through the pass. 

“ ’Tis .a ticklish hole to run into in a dirty night, with a 
staggering breeze,” he said, rubbing his hands as if the hazard 
increased his satisfaction, “ and we will now see if this Foam 
has mettle enough to follow.” 

“ The chap has a quick eye and good glasses, even though 
he should want nerve for the Scilly rocks,” cried the mate, who 
was looking out from the mizzen rigging. “There goes his 
stun’-sails already, and a plenty of them ! ” 

Sure enough the cruiser threw out her studding-sails, had 
them full and drawing in five minutes, and altered her course 
so as to follow the Montauk. There was now no longer any 
doubt concerning her object; for it was hardly possible two 
vessels should adopt so bold a step as this, just at dark, and 
on such a night, unless the movements of one were regulated 
by the movements of the other. 

In the mean time, anxious faces began to appear on the 
quarter-deck, and Mr. Dodge was soon seen moving stealthily 
about among the passengers, whispering here, cornering there, 
and seemingly much occupied in canvassing opinions on the 
subject of the propriety of the step that the master had just 
taken-; though, if the truth must be told, he rather stimulated 
opposition than found others prepared to meet his wishes. 
When he thought, however, he had collected a sufficient number 
of suffrages to venture on an experiment, that nothing but an 
inherent aversion to shipwreck and a watery grave should em- 
bolden him to make, he politely invited the captain to a private 
conference in the stateroom occupied by himself and Sir 
George Templemore. Changing the venue , as the lawyers term 
it, to his own little apartment, — no master of a packet willingly 
consenting to transact business in any other place — Captain 
Truck, who was out of cigars at the moment, very willingly 
assented. 

When the two were seated, and the door of the room was 
closed, Mr. Dodge carefully snuffed the candle, looked about 
him to make sure there was no eavesdropper in a room eight 
feet by seveji, and then commenced his subject, with what he 
conceived to be a commendable delicacy and discretion. 

“ Captain Truck,” he said, in a sort of low confidential tone 
that denotes equally concern and mystery, “ I think by this time 
you must have set me down as one of your warm and true 
friends and supporters. I came out in your ship, and, please 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


77 

God we escape the perils of the sea, it is my hope and intention 
to return home in her.” 

“If not, friend Dodge,” returned the master, observing 
that the other paused to note the effect of his peroration, and 
using a familiarity in his address that the acquaintance of the 
former passage had taught him was not misapplied ; “ if not, 
friend Dodge, you have made a capital mistake in getting on 
board of her, as it is by no means probable an occasion will 
offer to get out of her, until we fall in with a news-boat, or a 
pilot-boat, at least somewhere in the latitude and longitude of 
Sandy Hook. You smoke, I believe, sir ? ” 

“ I ask no better,” returned Steadfast, declining the offer ; 
“ I have told every one on the Continent,” — Mr. Dodge had 
been to Paris, Geneva, along the Rhine, and through Belgium 
and Holland, and in his eyes, this was the Continent, — “ that 
no better ship or captain sails the ocean ; and you know cap- 
tain, I have a way with, me, when I please, that causes wh^t I 
say to be remembered. Why, my dear sir, I had an article ex- 
tolling the whole line in the most appropriate terms, and this 
ship in particular, put into the journal at Rotterdam. It was 
so well done, that not a soul suspected it came from a personal 
friend of yours.” 

The captain was rolling the small end of a cigar in his 
mouth to prepare it for smoking, the regulations of the ship for- 
bidding any further indulgence below ; but when he received 
this assurance, he withdrew the tobacco with the sort of mys- 
tifying simplicity that gets to be a second nature with a regular 
votary of Neptune, and answered with a coolness of manner 
that was in ridiculous contrast to the affected astonishment of 
the words : — 

“ The devil you did !-— Was it in good Dutch ? ” 

“ I do not understand much 6f the language,” said Mr. 
Dodge, hesitatingly ; for all he knew, was yaw and nein , neither 
of these particularly well ; — “ but it looked to be uncommonly 
well expressed. I could do no more than pay a man to trans- 
late it. But to return to this affair of running in among the 
Scilly Islands such a night as this.” 

“ Return, my good fellow ! this is the first syllable you have 
said about the matter ! ” 

“ Concern on your account has caused me to forget myself. 
To be frank with you, Captain Truck, and if I weren’t your very 
best friend I should be silent, there is considerable excitement 
getting up about this matter.” 


78 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


“ Excitement ! what is that like ? — a sort of moral head-sea, 
do you mean ? ” 

“ Precisely : and I must tell you the truth, though I had 
rather a thousand times not ; but this change in the ship’s 
course is monstrous unpopular ! ” 

“ That is bad news, with a vengeance, Mr. Dodge ; I shall 
rely on you, as an old friend, to get up an opposition.” 

“ My dear captain, I have done all I could in that way al- 
ready ; but I never met with people so bent on a thing as most 
of the passengers. The Effinghams are very decided, though 
so purse-proud and grand ; Sir George Templemore declares 
it is quite extraordinary, and even the French lady is furious. 
To be sincere as the crisis demands, public opinion is setting 
so strong against you, that I expect an explosion.” 

“ Well, so long as the tide sets in my favor, I must endeavor 
to bear it. Stemming a current, in or out of water is uphill 
work ; but with a good bottom, clean copper, and plenty of 
wind, it may be done.” 

“ It would not surprise me were the gentlemen to appeal to 
the general sentiment against you when we arrive, and make a 
handle of it against your line ! ” 

“ It may be so, indeed ; but what can be done ? If we re- 
turn, the Englishman will certainly catch us, and, in that case 
my own opinion would be dead against me ! ” 

“ Well, well, captain ; I thought as a friend I would speak 
my mind. If this thing should really get into the papers in 
America, it would spread like fire in the prairies. You know 
what the papers are, I trust, Captain Truck ? ” 

“ I rather think I do, Mr. Dodge, with many thanks for your 
hints, and I believe I know what the Scilly Islands are, too. 
The elections will be nearly or quite over by the time we get in, 
and, thank God, they’ll not b§ apt to make a party question of 
it, this fall at least. In the mean time rely on my keeping a 
good lookout for the shoals of popularity and the quicksands of 
excitement. You smoke sometimes, I know, and I can recom- 
mend this cigar as fit to regale the nose of that chap of Stras- 
bourg — you read your Bible, I know, Mr. Dodge, and need not 
be told whom I mean. The steward will be happy to give you 
a light on deck, sir.” 

In this manner, Captain Truck, with the sangfroidot an old 
tar, and the tact of a packet-master, got rid of his troublesome 
visitor, who departed, half suspecting that he had been quizzed, 
but still ruminating on the expediency of getting up a com- 
mittee, or at least a public meeting in the cabin, to follow up 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


79 

the blow. By the aid of the latter, could he but persuade Mr. 
Effingham to take the chair, and Sir George Templemore to act 
as secretary, he thought he might escape a sleepless night, 
and, what was of quite as much importance, make a figure 
in a paragraph on reaching home. 

Mr. Dodge, whose Christian name, thanks to a pious an- 
cestry, was Steadfast, partook of the qualities that his two ap- 
pellations not inaptly expressed. There was a singular pro- 
fession of steadiness of purpose, and of high principle about 
him, all of which vanished in Dodge at the close. A great 
stickler for the rights of the people, he never considered that 
this people was composed of many integral parts, but he viewed 
all things as gravitating towards the great aggregation. Major- 
ities were his hobbies, and though singularly timid as an in- 
dividual, or when in the minority, put him on the strongest side 
and he was ready to face the devil. In short, Mr. Dodge was 
a people’s man, because his strongest desire, his “ ambition and 
his pride,” as he often expressed it, was to be a man of the 
people. In his particular neighborhood, at home, sentiment 
ran in veins, like gold in the mines, or in streaks of public 
opinion ; and though there might be three or four of these pub- 
lic sentiments, so long as each had ns party, no one was afraid 
to avow it; but as for maintaining a notion that was not thus 
upheld, there was a savor of aristocracy about it that would 
damn even a mathematical proposition, though regularly solved 
and proved. So much and so long had Mr. Dodge respired a 
moral atmosphere of this community-character, and gregarious 
propensity, that he had, in many things, lost all sense of his in- 
dividuality ; as much so, in fact, as if he breathed with a pair 
of county lungs, ate with a common mouth, drank from the 
town-pump, and slept in the opei^ air. 

Such a man was not very likely to make an impression on 
Captain Truck, one accustomed to rely on himself alone, in the 
face of warring elements, and who knew that a ship could not 
safely have more than a single will, and that the will of her 
master. 

The accidents of life could scarcely form extremes of 
character more remote than that of Steadfast Dodge and that 
of John Truck. The first never did anything beyond acts of 
the most ordinary kind, without first weighing its probable ef- 
fect in the neighborhood ; its popularity or unpopularity ; how 
it might tally with the different public opinions that were whif- 
fling through the country ; in what manner it would influence the 
next election, and whether it would be likely to elevate him or de- 


8o 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


press in him the public mind. No Asiatic slave stood more in ter- 
ror of a vindictive master than Mr. Dodge stood in fear and trem- 
bling before the reproofs, comments, censures, frowns, cavillings 
and remarks of every man in his county, who happened to belong 
to the political party that just at that moment was in power. As 
to the minority, he was as brave as a lion, could snap his fingers 
at them, and was foremost in deriding and scoffing at all they 
said and did. This, however, was in connection with politics 
only ; for, the instant party-drill ceased to be of value, Stead- 
fast’s valor oozed out of his composition, and in all other things 
he dutifully consulted every public opinion of that neighborhood. 
This estimable man had his weak points as well as another, and 
what is more, he was quite sensible of them, as was proved by 
a most jealous watchfulness of his besetting sins, in the way 
of exposure if not of indulgence. In a word, Steadfast Dodge 
was a man that wished to meddle with and control all things, 
without possessing precisely the spirit that was necessary to 
leave him master of himself ; he had a rabid desire for the good 
opinion of everything human, without always taking the means 
necessary to preserve his own ; was a stout declaimer for the 
rights of the community while forgetting that the community 
itself is but a means s®l up for the accomplishment of 
a given end ; and felt an inward and profound respect for 
anything that was beyond his reach, which manifested it- 
self, not in manly efforts to attain the forbidden fruit, but 
rather in a spirit of opposition and detraction, that only be- 
trayed, through its jealousy, the existence of the feeling ; 
which jealousy, however, he affected to conceal under an in- 
tense regard for popular rights, since he was apt to aver it was 
quite intolerable that any man should possess anything, even 
to qualities, in which his neighbors might not properly partici- 
pate. All these, moreover, and many similar traits, Mr. Dodge 
encouraged in the spirit of liberty ! 

On the other hand, John Truck sailed his own ship ; Was 
civil to his passengers from habit as well as policy ; knew that 
every vessel must have a captain ; believed mankind to be 
little better than asses ; took his own observations, and cared 
not a straw for those of his mates ; was never more bent on 
following his own views than when all hands grumbled and 
opposed him ; was daring by nature, decided from use and 
long self-reliance, and was every way a man fitted to steer his 
bark through the trackless ways of life, as well as those of the 
ocean. It was fortunate for one in his particular position, that 
nature had made the possessor of so much self-will and tempo- 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


Si 


rary authority, cool and sarcastic rather than hot-headed ^nd 
violent ; and for this circumstance Mr. Dodge in particular 
had frequent occasions for felicitation. 


CHAPTER VII. 

But then we are in order, when we are 
Most out of order. 

Jack Cade. 

Disappointed in his private appeal to the captain’s dread 
of popular disapprobation, Mr. Dodge returned to his secret 
work on deck ; for like a true freeman of the exclusive school, 
this person never presumed to work openly, unless sustained 
by a clear majority ; canvassing all around him, and striving 
hard to create a public opinion, as he termed it, on his side of 
the question, by persuading his hearers that every one was of 
his particular way of thinking already ; a method of exciting a 
feeling much practised by partisans of his school. In the 
interval, Captain Truck was working up his day’s reckoning 
by himself, in his own stateroom, thinking little, and caring 
less, about anything but the results of his figures, which soon 
convinced him, that by standing a few hours longer on his 
present course, he should “ plump his ship ashore ” somewhere 
between Falmouth and the Lizard. 

This discovery annoyed the worthy master so much the 
more, on account of the suggestions of his late visitor; for 
nothing could be less to his taste than to have the appearance 
of altering his determination under a menace. Still something 
must be done before midnight, for he plainly perceived that 
thirty or forty miles, at the farthest, would fetch up the 
Montauk on her present course. The passengers had left the 
deck to escape the night air, and he heard the Effinghams in- 
viting Mr. Sharp and Mr. Blunt into the ladies’ cabin, which 
had been taken expressly for their party, while the others were 
calling upon the stewards for the usual allowance of hot drinks, 
at the dining-table without. The talking and noise disturbed 
him ; his own stateroom became too confined, and he went on 
deck to come to his decision, in view of the angry-looking skies 
and the watery waste, over which he was called to prevail. 
Here we shall leave him, pacing the quarter-deck, in moody 


82 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


silence alone, too much disturbed to smoke even, while the 
mafe of the watch sat in the mizzen-rigging, like a monkey, 
keeping a lookout to windward and ahead. In the mean 
time, we will return to the cabin of the Effinghams. 

The Montauk was one of those surpassingly beautiful and 
yacht-like ships that now ply between the two hemispheres in 
such numbers, and which Jn luxury and the fitting conven- 
iences seem to vie with each other for the mastery. The cabins 
were lined with satinwood and bird’s-eye maple ; small marble 
columns separated the glittering panels of polished wood, 
and rich carpets covered the floors. The main cabin had the 
great table, as a fixture, in the centre, but that of Eve, somewhat 
shorter, but of equal width, was free from all encumbrance of 
the sort. It had its sofas, cushions, mirrors, stools, tables, and 
an upright piano. The doors of the staterooms, and other 
conveniences, opened on its sides and ends. In short, it 
presented, at that hour, the resemblance of a tasteful boudoir, 
rather than that of an apartment in a cramped and vulgar 
ship. 

Here, then, all who properly belonged fb the ' place were 
assembled, with Mr. Sharp and Mr. Blunt as guests, when a 
tap at the door announced another visitor. It was Mr. Dodge, 
begging to be admitted on a matter of business. Eve smiled, 
as she bowed assent to old Nanny, who acted as her groom of 
the chambers, and hastily expressed a belief that her guest 
must have come with a proposal to form a Dorcas society. 

Although Mr. Dodge was as bold as Caesar in expressing 
his contempt of anything but popular sway, he never came 
into the presence of the quiet and well-bred whithout a feeling 
of distrust and uneasiness, that had its rise in the simple cir- 
cumstance of his not being used to their company. Indeed, 
there is nothing more appalling, in general, to the vulgar and 
pretending, than the simplicity and natural ease of the refined. 
Their own notions of elegance lie so much on the surface, that 
they seem at first to suspect an ambush, and it is probable that, 
finding so much repose where, agreeably to their preconceived 
opinions, all ought to be fuss and pretension, they imagine 
themselves to be regarded as intruders. 

Mr. Effingham gave their visitor a polite reception, and one 
that was marked with a little more than the usual formality, 
by way of letting it be understood that the apartment was pri- 
vate ; a precaution that he knew was very necessary in associa- 
ting with tempers like those of Steadfast. All this was thrown 
away on Mr. Dodge, notwithstanding every other person pres- 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


83 


ent admired the tact with which the host kept his guest at a 
distance, by extreme attention, for the latter fancied so much 
ceremony was but a homage to his claims. It had the effect 
to put him on his own good behavior, however, and of suspend- 
ing the brusque manner in which he had intended to broach 
his subject. As everybody waited in calm silence, as if expect- 
ing an explanation of the cause of his visit, Mr. Dodge soon felt 
himself constrained to say something, though it might not be 
quite as clearly as he could wish. 

“ We have had a considerable pleasant time, Miss Effing- 
ham, since we sailed from Portsmouth, ” he observed fami- 
liarly. 

Eve bowed her assent, determined not to take to herself a 
visit that did violence to all her habits and notions of pro- 
priety. But Mr. Dodge was too obtuse to feel the hint con- 
veyed in mere reserve of manner. 

“ It would have been more agreeable, I allow, had not this 
man-of-war taken it into her head to follow us in this unprece- 
dented manner.” Mr. Dodge was as fond of his dictionary as 
the steward, though he belonged to the political, while 
Saunders merely adorned the polite school of talkers. “ Sir 
George calls it a most ‘ uncomfortable procedure.’ You know 
Sir George Templemore, without doubt, Miss Effingham ? ” 

“ I am aware there is a person of that name on board, sir,” 
returned Eve, who recoiled from this familiarity with the sensi- 
tiveness with which a well-educated female distinguishes be- 
tween one who appreciates her character and one who does 
not ; “but have never had the honor of his acquaintance.” 

Mr Dodge thought all this extraordinary, for he had wit- 
nessed Captain Truck’s introduction, and did not understand 
how people who had sailed twenty-four hours in the same ship, 
and had been fairly introduced, should not be intimate. As for 
himself, he fancied he was, what he termed, “ well acquainted ” 
with the Effinghams, from having talked of them a great deal 
ignorantly, and not a little maliciously ; a liberty he felt himself 
fully entitled to take from the circumstance of residing in the 
same county, although he had never spoken to one of the family, 
until accident placed him in their company on board the same 
vessel. 

“ Sir George is a gentleman of great accomplishments, Miss 
Effingham, I assure you ; a man of unqualified merit. We have 
the same stateroom, for I like company, and prefer chatting a 
little in my berth to being always asleep. He is a baronet, I 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


84 

suppose you know, — not that I care anything for titles, all men 
being equal in truth, though — thougji ” 

“ — Unequal in reality, sir, you probably meant to add,” 
observed John Effingham, who was lolling on Eve’s workstand, 
his eagle-shaped face fairly curling with the contempt he felt, 
and which he hardly cared to conceal. 

“ Surely not, sir ! ” exclaimed the terrified Steadfast, look- 
ing furtively about, lest some active enemy might be at hand 
to quote this unhappy remark to his prejudice. “ Surely not ! 
men are every way equal, and no one can pretend to be better 
than another. No, no, — it is nothing to me that Sir George is 
a baronet ; though one would prefer having a gentleman in the 
same stateroom to having a coarse fellow. Sir George thinks, 
sir, that the ship is running into great danger by steering for 
the land in so dark a night, and in such dirty weather. He 
has many out-of-the-way expressions, Sir George, I must admit, 
for one of his rank ; he calls the weather dirty, and the pro- 
ceedings uncomfortable ; modes of expression, gentlemen, to 
which I give an unqualified disapprobation.” 

“ Probably Sir George would attach more importance to a 
qualified disapprobation,” retorted John Effingham. 

“ Quite likely,” returned Mr. Dodge innocently, though the 
two other visitors, Eve and Mademoiselle Viefville, permitted 
slight muscular movements about the lips to be seen ; “ Sir 
George is quite an original in his way. We have few originals 
in our part of the country, you know, Mr. John Effingham ; for 
to say the' truth, it is rather unpopular to differ from the neigh- 
borhood, in this or any other respect. Yes, sir, the people 
will rule, and ought to rule. Still, I think Sir George may get 
along well enough as a stranger, for it is not quite as unpopular 
in a stranger to be original, as in a native. I think you will 
agree with me, sir, in believing, it excessively presuming in an 
American to pretend to be different from his fellow-citizens.” 

“ No one, sir, could entertain such presumption, I am per- 
suaded, in your case.” 

“ No, sir, I do not speak from personal motives ; but on the 
great general principles, that are to be maintained for the good 
of mankind. I do not know that any man has a right to be 
peculiar in a free country. It is aristocratic, and has an air of 
thinking one man is better than another. I am sure Mr. Effing- 
ham cannot approve of it ? ” 

“ Perhaps not. Freedom has many arbitrary laws that it 
will not do to violate.” 

“ Certainly, sir, or where would be its supremacy ? If the 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 8 5 

people cannot control and look down peculiarity, or anything 
they dislike, one might as well live in despotism at once ” 

“As I have resided much abroad, of late years, Mr. Dodge,” 
inquired Eve, who was fearful her kinsman would give some 
cut that would prove to be past bearing, as she saw his eye was 
menacing, and who felt a disposition to be amused at the other’s 
philosophy, that overcame the attraction of repulsion she had 
at first exprerienced towards him — “ will you favor me with 
some of those great principles of liberty of which I hear so much, 
but which, I fear, have been overlooked by my European in- 
structors ? ” 

Mademoiselle Viefville looked grave ; Messrs. Sharp and 
Blunt delighted ; Mr. Dodge, himself, mystified. 

“ I should feel myself little able to instruct Miss Effingham 
on such a subject,” the latter modestly replied, “ as no doubt 
she has seen too much misery in the nations she has visited, 
not to appreciate justly all the advantages of that happy country 
which has the honor of claiming her for one of its fair 
daughters.” 

Eve was terrified at her own temerity, for she was far from 
anticipating so high a flight of eloquence in return for her own 
simple request, but it was too late to retreat. 

“ None of the many illustrious and godlike men that our 
own beloved land has produced can pretend to more zeal in its 
behalf than myself, but I fear my abilities to do it justice will 
fall far short of the subject,” he continued. “ Liberty, as you 
know, Miss Effingham, as you well know, gentlemen^ is a boon 
that merits our unqualified gratitude, and which calls for our 
daily and hourly thanks to the gallant spirits who, in the days 
that tried men’s souls, were foremost in the tented field, and in 
the councils of the nation.” 

John Effingham turned a glance at Eve, that seemed to tell 
her how unequal she was to the task she had undertaken, and 
which promised a rescue, with her consent ; a condition that 
the young lady most gladly complied with in the same silent 
but expressive manner. 

“ Of all this my young kinswoman is properly sensible, Mr. 
Dodge,” he said by way of diversion ; “ but she, and I confess 
myself, have some little perplexity on the subject of what this 
liberty is, about which so much has been said and written in 
our time. Permit me to inquire, if you understand by it a 
perfect independence of thought, action, and rights ? ” 

“ Equal laws, equal rights, equality in all respects, and pure, 
abstract, unqualified liberty, beyond all question, sir.” 


86 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


“ What, a power in the strong man to beat the little man, 
and to take away his dinner ? ” 

“ By no means, sir ; Heaven forbid that I should maintain 
any such doctrine ! It means entire liberty : no kings no 
aristocrats, no exclusive privileges ; but one man is as good as 
another ! ” 

“Do you understand, then, that one man is as good as 
another, under our system, Mr. Dodge ? ” 

“ Unqualifiedly so, sir ; I am amazed that such a question 
should be put by a gentleman of your information, in an age 
like this ! ” 

“If one man is as good as another,” said Mr. Blunt, who 
perceived that John Effingham was biting his lips, a sign that 
something more biting would follow, — “will you do me the 
favor to inform me, why the country puts itself to the trouble 
and expense of the annual elections ? ” 

“ Elections, sir ! In what manner could free institutions 
flourish or be maintained, without constantly appealing to the 
people, the only true sources of power ? ” 

“ To this I make no objections, Mr. Dodge,” returned the 
young man, smiling ; “ but why an election ; if one man is as 
good as another, a lottery would be cheaper, easier and sooner 
settled. Why an election, or even a lottery at all ? why not 
choose the President as the Persians chose their king, by the 
neighing of a horse ? ” 

• “ This would be indeed an extraordinary mode of proceed- 
ing for an intelligent and virtuous people,' Mr. Blunt; and I 
must take the liberty of saying that I suspect you of pleasantry. 
If you wish an answer, I will say, at once, by such a process 
we might get a knave, or a fool, or a traitor.” 

“ How, Mr. Dodge ! I did not expect this character of 
the country from you ! Are the Americans, then, all fools, or 
knaves, or traitors ? ” 

“ If you intend to travel much in our country, sir. I would 
advise great caution in throwing out such an insinuation, for it 
would be apt to meet with a very general and unqualified dis- 
approbation. Americans are enlightened and free, and as far 
from deserving these epithets as any people on .earth.” 

“ And yet the fact follows from your own theory. If one 
man is as good as another, and any one of them is a fool, or a 
knave, or a traitor, — all are knaves, or fools, or traitors ! The 
insinuation is not mine, but it follows, I think, inevitably, as a 
consequence of your own proposition.” 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 87 

In the pause that succeeded, Mr. Sharp said in a low voice 
to Eve, “ He is an Englishman, after all ! ” 

“ Mr.’ Dodge does not mean that one man is as good as 
another in that particular sense,” Mr. Effingham kindly inter- 
posed, in his quality of host ; “ his views are less general, I 
fancy than his words would give us, at first, reason to suppose.” 

“Very true, Mr. Effingham, very true, sir ; one man is not 
as good as another in that particular sense, or in the sense of 
elections, but in all other senses. Yes, sir,” turning towards 
Mr. Blunt again, as one reviews the attack on an antagonist, 
who has given a fall, after taking breath, “ in all other senses, 
one man is unqualifiedly as good as another. One man has 
the same rights as another.” 

“ The slave as the freeman ? ” 

“ The slaves are exceytions, sir. But in the free states, ex- 
cept in the case of elections, one man is as good as another in 
all things. That is our meaning, and any other principle would 
be unqualifiedly unpopular.” 

“ Can one man make a shoe as well as another ? ” 

“ Of rights, sir, — I stick to the rights, you will remember.” 

“ Has the minor the same rights as the man of full age ; 
the apprentice as the master ; the vagabond as the resident, 
the man who cannot pay as the man who can ? ” 

“No, sir, not hi that sense either. You do not understand 
me, sir, I fear. All that I mean is, that in particular things, 
one man is as good as another in America. This is American 
doctrine, though it may not happen to be English, and I flatter 
myself it will stand the test of the strictest investigation.” 

“ And you will allow me to inquire where this is not the 
case, in particular things. If you mean to say that there are 
fewer privileges accorded to the accidents of birth, or to for- 
tune and station in American, than is usual in other countries, 
we shall agree ; but I think it will hardly do to say there are 
none ! ” 

“ Privileges accorded to birth in America, sir ! The idea 
would be odious to her people ! ” 

“ Does not the child inherit the property of the father ? ” 

“ Most assuredly ; but this can hardly be termed a privi- 
lege.” 

“ That may depend a good deal on taste. I should ac- 
count it a greater privilege than to inherit a title without the 
fortune.” 

“ I perceive, gentleman, that we do not perfectly under- 
stand each other, and I must postpone the discussion to a more 


88 


HOME JVAB D BOUND. 


favorable opportunity ; for I confess great uneasiness at this 
decision of the captain’s, about steering in among the rocks of 
Sylla.” (Mr. Dodge was not as clear-headed as common, in 
consequence of the controversy that had just occurred.) “ I 
challenge you to renew the subject another time, gentlemen. 
I only happened in ” (another peculiarity of diction in this 
gentleman) “ to make a first call, for I suppose there is no ex- 
clusion in an American ship ? ” 

“ None whatever, sir,” Mr. John Effingham coldly answered. 
u All the staterooms are in common, and I propose to seize an 
early occasion to return this compliment, by making myself at 
home in the apartment which has the honor to lodge Mr. 
Dodge and Sir George Templemore.” 

Here Mr. Dodge beat a retreat, without touching at all on 
his real errand. Instead of even following up the matter with 
the other passengers, he got into a corner, with one or two con- 
genial spirits, who had taken great offence that the Effinghams 
should presume to retire into their cabin, and particularly that 
they should have the extreme aristocratical audacity to shut the 
door, where he continued pouring into the greedy ears of his 
companions his own history of the recent dialogue, in which, ac- 
cording to his own account of the matter, he had completely 
gotten the better of that “ young upstart, Blunt,” a man of whom 
he knew positively nothing, divers anecdotes of the Effingham 
family, that came of the lowest and most idle gossip of rustic ma- 
lignancy, and his own vague and confused notions of the rights 
of persons and of things. Very different was the conversation 
that ensued in the Jadies’ cabin, after the welcome disappear- 
ance of the uninvited guest. Not a remark of any sort was made 
on his intrusion, or on his folly: even John Effingham, little 
addicted in common to forbearance, being too proud to waste 
his breath on so low game, and too well taught to open upon a 
man the moment his back was turned. But the subject was 
continued, and in a manner better suited to the education, in- 
telligence, and views of the several speakers. 

Eve said but little, though she ventured to ask a question 
now and then ; Mr. Sharp and Mr. Blunt being the principal 
supporters of the discourse, with an occasionally quiet, discreet 
remark from the young lady’s father, and a sarcasm, now and 
then, from John Effingham. Mr. Blunt, though advancing 
his opinions with diffidence, and with a proper deference for 
the greater experience of the two elder gentlemen, soon made 
his superiority apparent, the subject proving to be f one on 


HOME WARD BOUND . Sg 

which he had evidently thought a great deal, and that too with 
a discrimination and originality that are far from common. 

He pointed out the errors that are usually made on the sub- 
ject of the institutions of the American Union, by confounding 
the effects of the general government with those of the separate 
states ; and he clearly demonstrated that the Confederation it- 
self had, in reality, no distinctive character of its own, even for 
or against liberty. It was a confederation, and got its charac- 
ter from the characters of its several paits, which of themselves 
were independent in all things, on the important point of dis- 
tinctive principles, with the exception of the vague general pro- 
vision that they must be republics ; a provision that meant 
anything, or nothing, so far as true liberty was concerned, as 
each state might decide for itself. 

“ The character of the American government is to be 
sought in the characters of the state governments/’ he con- 
cluded, “ which vary with their respective policies. It is in 
this way that communities that hold one half of their numbers 
in domestic bondage are found tied up in the same political 
fasces with other communities of the most democratic institu- 
tions. The general government assures neither liberty c5f 
speech, liberty of conscience, action, nor of anything else, ex- 
cept as against itself ; a provision that is quite unnecessary, 
as it is purely a government of delegated powers, and has no 
authority to act at all on those particular interests.” 

“ This is very different from the general impression in 
Europe,” observed Mr. Sharp ; a and as I perceive I have the 
good fortune to be thrown into the society of an American, if 
not an American lawyer, able to enlighten my ignorance on 
those interesting topics, I hope to be permitted, during some 
of the idle moments, of which we are likely to have many, to 
profit by it.” 

The other colored, bowed to the compliment, but appeared 
to hesitate before he answered. 

“ ’Tis not absolutely necessary to be an American by birth,” 
he said, “ as I have already had occasion to observe, in order 
to understand the institutions of the country, and I might pos- 
sibly mislead you were you to fancy that a native was your in- 
structor. I have often been in the country, however, if not 
born in it, and few young men, on this side of the Atlantic, 
have had their intention pointed, with so much earnestness, to 
all that affects it as myself.” 

“ I was in hopes we had the honor of including you among 
our countrymen,” observed John Effingham, with evident disap- 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


9 ° 

pointment. “ So many young men come abroad disposed to 
quarrel with foreign excellences, of which they know nothing, 
or to concede so many of our own, in the true spirit of serviles, 
that I was flattering myself I had at last found an exception.” 

Eve also felt regret, though she hardly avowed to herself 
the reason. 

“ He is then, an Englishman, after all ! ” said Mr. Sharp, 
in another aside. 

“ Why not a German — or a Swiss — or even a Russian ? ” 

“ His English is perfect ; no continental could speak so 
fluently, with such a choice of words, so totally without an ac- 
cent, without an effort. As Mademoiselle Viefville says, he 
does not speak well enough for a foreigner.” 

Eve was silent, for she was thinking of the singular manner 
in which a conversation as oddly commenced, had brought 
about an explanation on a point that had often given her many 
doubts. Twenty times had she decided in her own mind that 
this young man, whom she could properly call neither stranger 
nor acquaintance, was a countryman, and as often had she 
been led to change her opinion. He had now been explicit, 
she thought, and she felt compelled to set him down as a Euro- 
pean, though not disposed, still, to believe he was an English- 
man. For this latter notion, she had reasons it might not have 
done to give to a native of the island they had just left, as she 
knew to be the fact with Mr. Sharp. 

Music succeeded this conversation, Eve having taken the 
precaution to have the piano tuned before quitting port, an ex- 
pedient we would recommend to all who have a regard for the 
instrument that extends beyond its outside, or even for their 
own ears. John Effingham executed brilliantly on the violin : 
and, as it appeared on inquiry, the two younger gentlemen per- 
formed respectably on the flute, flageolet, and one or two other 
wind instruments. We shall leave them doing great justice to 
Beethoven, Rossini, and Mayerbeer, whose compositions Mr. 
Dodge did not fail to sneer at in the outer cabin, as affected 
and altogether unworthy of attention, and return on deck to the 
company of the anxious master, . 

Captain Truck had continued to pace the deck moodily and 
alone, during the whole evening, and he only seemed to come 
to a recollection of himself when the relief passed him on his 
way to the wheel, at eight bells. Inquiring the hour, he got 
into the mizzen rigging, with a night-glass, and swept the horizon 
in search of the Foam. Nothing could be made out, the’ dark- 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


9 l 

ness having settled upon the water in a way to circumscribe the 
Visble horizon to very narrow limits. 

“ This may do,” he muttered to himself, as he swung off by 
a rope, and alighted again on the planks of the deck. Mr. 
Leach was summoned, and an order was passed for the relieved 
watch to remain on deck for duty. 

When all was ready, the first mate went through the ship, 
seeing that all the candles were extinguished, or that the hoods 
were drawn over the skylights, in such a way as to conceal any 
rays that might gleam upwards from the cabin. At the same time 
attention was paid to the binnacle-lamp. This precaution ob- 
served, the people went to work to reduce the sail, and in the 
course of twenty minutes they had got in the studding sails, 
and all the standing canvas to the topsails, the fore-course, and 
a forward staysail. The three topsails were then reefed, with 
sundry urgent commands to the crew to be active, for, “ The 
Englishman was coming up like a horse, all this time, no 
doubt,” 

This much effected, the hands returned on deck as much 
amazed at the several arrangements as if the order had been to 
cut away the masts. 

“ If we had a few guns, and were a little stronger-handed,” 
growled an old salt to the second mate, as he hitched up his 
trousers and rolled over his quid,“ I should think the hard one 
aft, had been stripping for a fight ; but as it is, we have nothing 
to carry on the war with, unless we throw sea biscuits into the 
enemy ! u 

“ Stand by to veer ! ’’called out the captain from the quarter 
deck ; or, as he pronounced it, ” ware” 

The man sprang to the braces, and the bows of the ship fell 
off gradually, as the yards yielded slowly to the drag. In a minute 
the Montauk was rolling dead before it, and her broadside 
came sweeping up to the wind with the ship’s head to the east- 
ward. This new direction in the course had the double effect 
of hauling off the land, and of diverging at more than right 
angles from the line of sailing of the Foam, if that ship still 
continued in pursuit. The seamen nodded their heads at each 
other in approbation, for all now as well understood the mean- 
ing of the change as if it had been explained to them verbally. 

The revolution on deck produced as sudden a revolution be- 
low. The ship was no longer running easily on an even keel, 
but was pitching violently into a head-beating sea, and the 
wind, which a few minutes before, was scarcely felt to blow, was 
now whistling its hundred strains among the cordage. Some 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


9 2 

sough* their berths, among whom were Mr. Sharp and Mr. 
Dodge ; some hurried up the stairs to learn the reason, and all 
broke up their avocations for the night. 

Captain Truck had the usual number of questions to answer 
which he did in the following succinct and graphic manner, a 
reply that we hope will prove as satisfactory to the reader, as 
it was made to be, perforce, satisfactory to the curious on board. 

“ Had we stood on an hour longer, gentlemen, we should 
have been lost on tlie coast of Cornwall ! ” he said, pithily : “ had 
we stopped where we were, the sloop of war would have been 
down upon us in twenty minutes : by changing the course, in 
the way you have seen, he may get to leeward of us ; if he find 
it out, he may change his own course, in the dark, being as 
likely to go wrong as to go right : or he may stand in, and set 
up the ribs of his majesty’s ship Foam to dry among the rocks 
of the Lizard, where I hope all her people will get safely ashore, 
dry shod.” 

After waiting the result anxiously for an hour, the passen- 
gers retired to their rooms one by one ; but Captain Truck did 
not quit the deck until the middle watch was set. Paul Blunt 
heard him enter his stateroom, which was next to his own, and 
putting out his head, he inquired the news above. The worthy 
master had discovered something, about this young man which 
created a respect for his nautical information, for he never mis- 
applied a term, and he invariably answered all his questions 
promptly, and with respect. 

“ Dirtier, and dirtier,” he said, in defiance of Mr. Dodge’s 
opinion of the phrase, pulling off his pea-jacket, and laying 
aside his sou’wester • “ a cap full of wind, with just enough driz- 
zle to take the comfort out of a man, and lacker him down like 
a boot.” 

“ The ship has gone about ? ” 

“ Like a dancing master with two toes. We have got her 
head to the southward and westward again ; another reef in 
the topsails,” (which word Mr. Truck pronounced tawsails, with 
great unction,) “ England well under' our lee, and the Atlantic 
ocean right before us. Six hours on this course, and we make 
a fair wind of it.” 

“ And the sloop ? ” 

“ Well, Mr. Blunt, I can give no direct account of her. She 
has dropped in alongshore, I suspect, where she is clawing off, 
like a boy climbing a hillock of ice on his hands and knees ; or 
is flying about among the other foam , somewhere in the latitude 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


•93 


of the Lizard. An easy pillow to you, Mr. Blunt, and no tack- 
ing till the nap’s up.” 

“And the poor wretches in the Foam ? ” 

“ Why, the Lord have mercy on their souls ! ” 


CHAPTER IX.* 

The moon was now 

Rising^ull orbed, but broken by a cloud. 

The wind was hushed, and the sea mirror-like. 

Italy. 

Most of the passengers appeared on deck soon after Saun- 
ders was again heard rattling among his glasses. The day was 
sufficiently advanced to allow a distinct view of all that was pass- 
ing, and the wind had shifted. The change had not occurred 
more than ten minutes, and as most of the inmates of the cabin 
poured up the cabin-stairs nearly in* a body, Mr. Leach had just 
got through with the necessary operation of bracing the yards 
about, for the breeze, which was coming stiff, now blew from the 
northeast. No land was visible, and the mate was just giving 
his opinion that they were up with Scilly, as Captain Truck ap- 
peared in the group. 

One glance aloft, and another at the heavens, sufficed to let 
the experienced master into all the secrets of his present situ- 
ation. His next step was to jump into the rigging, and to take 
a look at the sea, in the direction of the Lizard. There, to his 
extreme disappointment, appeared a ship with everything set 
that would draw, and with a studding-sail flapping, before it 
could be drawn down, which he knew in an instant to be the 
Foam. At this spectacle Mr. Truck compressed his lips, and 
made an inward imprecation,’ that it would ill comport with our 
notions of propriety to repeat. 

“Turn the hands up and shake out the reefs, sir,” he said 
coolly to his mate, for it was a standing rule of the captain’s to 
seem calmest when he was in the greatest rage. “Turn them 
up, sir, and show every rag that will draw, from the truck to the 
lower studding-sail boom, and be d : — d to them ! ” 

On this hint Mr. Leach bestirred himself, and the men were 
quickly on the yards, casting loose gaskets and reef-points. 
Sail opened after sail, and as the steerage passengers, who could 


94 


HOME WARD BOUND . 


show a force of thirty or forty men, aided with their strength, 
the Montauk was soon running dead before the wind, under 
every thing that would draw, and with studding-sails on both 
sides. The mates looked surprised, the seamen cast inquiring 
glances aft, but Mr. Truck lighted a cigar. 

“ Gentlemen,” said the captain, after a few philosophical 
whiffs, “ to go to America with yonder fellow on my weather 
beam is quite out of the question : he would be up with me, 
and jn possession, before ten o’clock, and my only play is to 
bring the wind right over the taffrail, where, luckily, we have 
got it. I think we can bother him at this sport, for your sharp 
bottoms are not as good as your kettle-bottoms in ploughing a 
full furrow. As for bearing her canvas, the Montauk will stand 
it as long as any ship in King William’s navy, before the gale. 
And on one thing you may rely; I’ll carry you all into Lisbon 
before that tobacco-hating rover shall carry you back to Ports- 
mouth. This is a category to which I will stick.” 

This characteristic explanation served to let the passengers 
understand the real state of the case. No one remonstrated, 
for all preferred a race to being taken ; and even the English- 
men on board began again to take sides with the vessel they 
were in, and this the more readily, as Captain Truck freely ad- 
mitted that their cruiser was too much for him on every tack 
but the one he was about to try. Mr. Sharp hoped that they 
might now escape,, and as for Sir George Templemore, he gen- 
erously repeated his offer to pay, out of his own pocket, all the 
port-charges in any French, Spanish, or Portuguese harbor, the 
master would enter, rather than see such an outrage done a 
foreign vessel in a time of profound peace. 

The expedient of Captain Truck proved his judgment, and 
his knowledge of his profession. Within an hour it was appar- 
ent that, if there was any essential difference in the sailing of 
the two ships under the present circumstances, it was slightly 
in favor of the Montauk. The Foam now set her ensign for 
•the first time, a signal that she wished to speak the ship in sight. 
At this Captain Truck chuckled, for he pronounced it a sign 
that she w^as conscious she could not get them within range of 
her guns. 

“ Show him the gridiron,” cried the captain, briskly ; “ it 
will not do to be beaten in civility by a man who has beaten us 
already on so many other tacks ; but keep all fast as a church- 
door on a w'eek-day.” 

This latter comparison was probably owing to the circum- 
stance of the master’s having come from a part of the country 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


95 

where all the religion is compressed into the twenty-four hours 
that commence on a Saturday-night at sunset, and end at sun- 
set the next day : at least, this was his own explanation of the 
matter. The effect of success was always to make Mr. Truck 
loquacious, and he now began to tell many excellent anecdotes, 
of which he had stores, all of events that had happened to him 
in person, or of which he had been an eyewitness ; and on 
which his hearers, as Sancho said, might so certainly depend 
as true, that, if they chose, they might safely swear they had 
seen them themselves. 

“ Speaking of churches and doors, Sir George,” he said, 
between the puffs of the cigar, “were you ever in Rhode 
Island ? ” 

“ Never, as this is my first visit to America, captain.” 

“ True ; well, you will be likely to go there, if you go to 
Boston, as it is the best way ; unless you would prefer to run 
over Nantucket shoals, and a hundred miles of ditto, as Mr. 
Dodge calls it.” 

“ Ditter, captain, if you please — ditter : it is the continental 
word for roundabout.” 

“ The d 1 it is ! it is worth knowing, however. And 

what may be the French for pea-jacket ? ” 

“ You mistake me, sir, — ditter, a circuit, or the longer way.” 

“That is the road we are now travelling, by George! — I 
say, Leach, do you happen to know that we are making a dit- 
ter to America ? ’, 

“ You were speaking of a church, Captain Truck,” politely 
interposed Sir George, who had become rather intimate with 
his fellow-occupant of the stateroom. 

“ I was travelling through that state, a few years since on my 
way from Providence to New London, at a time when a new 
road had just been opened. It was on a Sunday, and the stage 
— a four-horse power, you must know — had never yet run 
through on the Lord’s-day. Well, we might be, as it were, off 
here at right angles to our course, and there was a short turn 
in the road, as one would say, out yonder. As we hove in sight 
of the turn, I saw a chap at the mast-head of a tree ; down he 
slid, and away he went right before it, towards a meeting-house 
two or three cables length down the road. We followed at a 
smart jog, and just before we got the church abeam, out 
poured the whole congregation, horse and foot, parson and 
idlers, -sinners and hypocrites, to see the four-horse power go 
past. Now this is what I call keeping the church-door open 
on a Sunday.” 


9 6 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


We might have hesitated about recording this anecdote of 
the captain’s, had we not received an account of the same oc- 
currence from a quarter that left no doubt that his version of 
the affair was substantially correct. This and a few similar ad- 
ventures, some of which he invented, and all of which he swore 
were literal, enabled the worthy master to keep the quarter- 
deck in good humor, while the ship was running at the rate of 
ten knots the hour in a line so far diverging from her true 
course. But the relief to landsmen is so great, in general, in 
meeting with a fair wind at sea, that few are disposed to quar- 
rel with its consequences. A bright day, a steady ship, the 
pleasure of motion as they raced with the combing seas, and 
the interest of the chase, set every one at ease ; and even 
Steadfast Dodge was less devoured with envy, a jealousy of his 
own deservings, and the desire of management, than usual, 
not an introduction occurred, and yet the little world of the 
ship got to be better acquainted with each other in the course 
of that day, than would have happened in months of the usual 
collision on land. 

The Montauk continued to gain on her pursuer until the sun 
set, when Captain Truck began once more to cast about him 
for the chances of the night. He knew that the ship was run- 
ning into the mouth of the Bay of Biscay, or at least was fast 
approaching it, and he bethought him of the means of getting 
to the westward. The night promised to be anything but dark, 
for though a good many wild-looking clouds were by this time 
scudding athwart the heavens, the moon diffused a sort of twi- 
light gleam in the air. Waiting patiently, however, until the 
middle watch was again called, he reduced sail, and hauled the 
ship off to a southwest course, hoping by this slight change in- 
sensibly to gain an offing before the Foam was aware of it ; a 
scheme that he thought more likely to be successful, as by dint 
of sheer driving throughout the day, he had actually caused the 
courses of that vessel to dip before the night shut in 

Even the most vigilant become weary of watching, and Cap- 
tain Truck was unpleasantly disturbed next morning by an 
alarm that the Foam was just out of gun-shot, coming up with 
them fast. On gaining, the deck, he found the fact indispu- 
table. Favored by the change in the course, the cruiser had 
been gradually gaining on the Montauk ever since the first watch 
was relieved, and had indeed lessened the distance between the 
respective ships by two-thirds. No remedy remained but to 
try the old expedient of getting the wind over the taffrail once 
more, and of showing all the canvas that could be spread. As 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


97 

like causes are known to produce like effects, the expedient 
brought about the old results. The packet had the best of it, 
and the sloop of war slowly fell astern. Mr. Truck now de- 
clared he would make a “ regular business of it,” and accord- 
ingly he drove his ship in that direction throughout the day, 
the following night, and until near noon of the day that suc- 
ceeded, varying his course slightly to suit the wind, which he 
studiously kept so near aft as to allow the studding-sails to draw 
on both sides. At meridian, on the fourth day out, the captain 
got a good observation, and ascertained that the ship was in 
the latitude of Oporto, with an offing of less than a degree. At 
this time the top-gallant sails of the Foam might be discovered 
from the deck, resembling a boat Clinging to the watery hori- 
zon. As he had fully made up his mind to run into port in 
preference to being overhauled, the master had kept so near 
the land, with an intention of profiting by his position, in the 
event of any change favoring his pursuers ; but now he be- 
lieved that at sunset he should be safe in finally shaping his 
course for America. 

“ There must be double-fortified eyes’lboard that fellow to 
see what we are about at this distance, when the night is once 
shut in,” he said to Mr. Leach, who seconded all his orders 
with obedient Zeal, “ and we will watch our moment to slip out 
fairly into the great prairie, and then we shall discover who 
best knows the trail ! You’ll be for trotting off to the prairies, 
Sir George, as soon as we get in, and for trying your hand at 
the buffaloes, like all the rest of them. Ten years since, if an 
Englishman came to look at us, he was afraid of being scalped 
on Broadway, and now he is never satisfied unless he is astrad- 
dle of the Rocky Mountains in the first fortnight. I take over 
lots of cockney hunters every summer, who just get a shot at a 
grizzly bear or two, or at an antelope and come back in time 
for the opening of Drury Lane.” 

“ Should we not be more certain of accomplishing your 
plans, by seeking refuge in Lisbon for a day or two ? I confess 
now I should like to see Lisbon, and as for the port-charges, 

I would rather pay them twice, than that this poor man should 
be torn from his wife. On this point I hope, Captain Truck, 
I have made myself sufficiently explicit.” 

Captain Truck shook the baronet heartily by the hand, as 
he always did when this offer was renewed, declaring that his 
feelings did him honor. 

“ Never fear for Davis,” he said. “ Old Grab shall not 
have him this tack, nor the Foam neither. I’ll throw him over- 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


98 

board before such a disgrace befall us or him. Well, this leech 
has driven us from the old road, and nothing now remains but 
to make the southern passage, unless the wind prevail at 
south/’ 

The Montauk, in truth, "had not much varied, from a course 
that was once greatly in favor with the London ships, Lisbon 
and New York being nearly in the same parallel of latitude, 
and the currents, if properly improved, often favoring the run. 
It is true, the Montauk had kept closer in with the continent 
by a long distance than was usual, even for the passage he had 
named ; but the peculiar circnmstances of the chase had left 
no alternative, as the master explained to his listeners. 

“ It was a coasting voyage, or a tow back to Portsmouth, 
Sir George,” he said, “ and of the two, I know you like the 
Montauk too well to wish to be quit of her so soon.” 

To this the baronet gave a willing assent, protesting that 
his feelings had got so much enlisted on the side of the vessel 
he was in, that he would cheerfully forfeit a thousand pounds 
rather than be overtaken. The master assured him that was 
just what he liked, and swore that he was the sort of passenger 
he most delighted in. 

“ When a man puts his foot on the deck of a ship, Sir 
George, he should look upon her as his home, his church, his 
wife and children, his uncles and aunts, and all the other lum- 
ber ashore. This is the sentiment to make seamen. Now, I 
entertain a greater regard for the shortest ropeyarn aboard 
this ship, than for the topsail-sheets or best bower of any other 
vessel. It is like a man’s loving his own finger or toe, before 
another person’s. I have heard it said that one should love 
his neighbor as well as himself ; but for my part I love my ship 
better than my neighbor’s or my neighbor himself ; and I fancy 
if the truth were known, my neighbor pays me back in the same 
coin ! For my part, I like a thing because it is mine.” 

A little before dark the head of the Montauk was inclined 
towards Lisbon, as if her intention was to run in, but the mo- 
ment the dark spot that pointed out the position of the Foam 
was lost in the haze of the horizon, Captain Truck gave the 
order to “ ware” and sail was made to the west-southwest. 

Most of the passengers felt an intense curiosity to know 
the state of things on the following morning, and all the men 
among them were dressed and on deck just as the day began 
to break.. The wind had been fresh and steady all night, and 
as the ship had been kept with her yards a little checked, and 
topmost studding-sails set, the officers reported her to be at 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


99 


least a hundred miles to the westward of the spot where she 
veered. The reader will imagine the disappointment the latter 
experinced, then, when they beheld the Foam a little on their 
weather-quarter, edging away for them as assidously as she had 
been hauling up for them the night they sailed from Portsmouth, 
distant little more than a league ! 

“This is indeed extraordinary perseverance,” said Paul 
Blunt to Eve, at whose side he was standing at the moment 
the fact was ascertained, “and I think our captain might do 
well to heave-to and ascertain its cause.” 

“ I hope not,” cried his companion with vivacity. “ I con- 
fess to an esprit de corps , and a gallant determination to ‘ see it 
out,’ as Mr. Leach styles his own resolution. One does not 
like to be followed about the ocean in this manner, unless it be 
for the interest it gives the voyage. After all, how much bet- 
ter is this than dull solitude, and what a zest it gives to the 
monotony of the ocean ! ” 

“ Do you then find the ocean a scene of monotony ? ” 

“ Such it has oftener appeared to me than anything else, 
and I give it a fair trial, having never le mat de tner. But I 
acquit it of this sin now ; for the interest of a chase, in reason- 
ably good weather, is quite equal to that of a horse-race, which 
is a thing I delight in. Even Mr. John Effingham can look 
radiant under its excitement.” 

“ And when this is the case, he is singularly handsome, a 
nobler outline of face is seldom seen than that of Mr. John 
Effingham.” 

“ He has a noble outline of soul, if he did but know it him- 
self,” returned Eve, warmly: “I love no one as much as he, 
with the exception of my father, and as Mademoiselle Viefville 
would say pour cause.” 

The young man could have listened all day, but Eve smiled, 
bowe<3 graciously, though with a glistening eye, and hastily left 
the deck, conscious of having betrayed some of her most cher- 
ished feelings to one who had no claim to share them. 

Captain Truck, while vexed to his heart’s core, or, as he 
expressed it himself, “ struck aback, like an old lady shot off a 
hand-sled in sliding down hill,” was prompt in applying the old 
remedy to the evil. The Montauk was again put before the 
wind, sail was made, and the fortunes of the chase were once 
more cast on the “ play of the ship.” 

The commander of the Foam certainly deprecated this 
change, for it was hardly made before he set his ensign, and^ 
fired a gun. But of these signals no other notice was taken ; 


IOO 


HOME WARD BOUND. 


than to show a flag in return, when the captain and his mates 
'proceeded to get the bearings of the sloop-of-war. Ten minutes 
showed they were gaining ; twenty did better ; and in an hour 
she was well on the quarter. 

Another day of strife succeeded, or rather of pure sailing, 
for not a rope was started on board the Montauk, the wind still 
standing fresh and steady. The sloop made many signals, all 
indicating a desire to speak the Montauk, but Captain Truck 
declared himself too experienced a navigator to be caught by 
bunting, and in too great a hurry to stop and chat by the way. 

“ Vattel has laid down no law for such a piece of complais- 
ance, in a time of profound peace. I am not to be caught by 
that category.” 

The result may be anticipated from what has been already 
related. The two ships kept before the wind until the Foam 
was again far astern, and the observations of Captain Truck 
told him he was as far south as the Azores. In one of these 
islands he was determined to take refuge, provided he was not 
favored by accident, for going farther south was out of the 
question, unless absolutely driven to it. Calculating his dis- 
tance, on the evening of the sixth day out, he found that he 
might reach an anchorage at Pico, before the sloop-of-war 
could close with him, even allowing the necessity of hauling up 
again by the wind. 

But Providence had ordered differently. Towards midnight, 
the breeze almost failed and became baffling, and when the day 
dawned the officer of the watch reported that it was ahead. 
The pursuing ship, though still in sight, was luckily so far 
astern and to leeward as to prevent any danger from a visit by 
boats, and there was leisure to make the preparations that 
might become necessary on the springing up of a new breeze. 
Of the speedy occurrence of such a change there was now every 
symptom, the heavens lighting up at the northwest, a quarter 
from which the genius of the storms mostly delights in making 
a display of his power. 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


IOI 


CHAPTER X. 

I come with mightier things ; 

„Who calls me silent ? I have many tones — 

The dark sky thrills with low mysterious moans ( 

Borne on my sweeping winds. 

Mrs. Hemans. 

The awaking of the winds on the ocean is frequently attended 
with signs and portents as sublime as any the fancy can con- 
ceive. On the present occasion, the breeze that had pre- 
vailed so steadily for a week was succeeded by light baffling 
puffs, as if, conscious of the mighty powers of the air that were 
assembling in their strength, these inferior blasts were hurrying 
to and fro for a refuge. The clouds, too, were whirling about 
in uncertain eddies, many of the heaviest and darkest descend- 
ing so low along the horizon, that they had an appearance of 
settling on the waters in quest of repose. But the waters them- 
selves were unnaturally agitated. The billows, no longer fol- 
lowing each other in long regular waves were careering 
upwads, like fiery coursers suddenly checked in their mad ca- 
reer. The usual order of the eternally unquiet ocean was lost 
in a species of chaotic tossings of the element, the seas heav- 
ing themselves upward, without order, and frequently without 
visible cause. This was the reaction of the currents, and of the 
influence of breezes still older than the last. Not the least 
fearful ' symptom of the hour was the terrific calmness of the 
air amid such a scene of menacing wildness. Even the ship 
came into the picture to aid the impression of intense expecta- 
tion ; for with her canvas reduced, she, too, seemed to have 
lost that instinct which had so lately guided her along the 
trackless waste, and was “ wallowing,” nearly helpless, among 
the confused waters, Still she was a beautiful and a grand 
object, perhaps more so at that moment than at any other ; for 
her vast and naked spars, her well-supported masts, and all the 
ingenious and complicated hamper of the machine, gave her 
a resemblance to some sinewy and gigantic gladiator, pacing 
the arena, in waiting for the conflict that was at hand. 

“ This is an extraordinary scene,” said Eve, who clung 
to her father’s arm, as she gazed around her equally in admir- 
ation and in awe ; “ a dreadful exhibition of the sublimity of 
nature ! ” 


102 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


“Although accustomed to the sea,” returned Mr. Blunt, “ I 
have witnessed these ominous changes but twice before, and I 
think this the grandest of them all.” 

“ Were the others followed by tempests ? ” inquired the 
anxious parent. 

“ One brought a tremendous gale, while the other passed 
away like a misfortune of which we get a near view, but are 
permitted to escape the effects.” 

“ I do not know that I wish such to be entirely our present 
fortune,” rejoined Eve, “ for there is so much sublimity in this 
view of the ocean unaroused, that I feel desirous of seeing it 
when aroused.” 

“ We are not in the hurricane latitudes, or hurricane months,” 
resumed the young man, “ and it is not probable that there is 
anything more in reserve for us than a hearty gal© of wind, 
which may, at least help us to get rid of yonder troublesome 
follower.” 

“ Even that I do not wish, provided he will let us continue 
the race on our proper route. A chase across the Atlantic 
would be something to enjoy at the moment, gentlemen, and 
something to talk of in after life.” 

“ I wonder if such a thing be possible ! ” exclaimed Mr. 
Sharp ; “ it would indeed be an incident to recount to another 
generation ! ” 

“ There is little probability of our witnessing such an ex- 
ploit,” Mr. Blunt remarked, “for gales of wind on the ocean 
have the same separating influence on consorts of the sea, that 
domestic gales have on consorts of the land. Nothing is more 
difficult than to keep ships and fleets in sight of each other in 
very heavy weather, unless indeed, those of the best qualities 
are disposed to humor those of the worst.” 

“ I know not which may be called the best, or which the worst, 
in this instance, for our tormentor appears to be as much bet- 
ter than ourselves in some particulars, as we are better than he 
in others. If the humoring is to come from our honest captain, 
it will be some such humoring as the spoiled child gets from a 
capricious parent in moments of anger.” 

Mr. Truck passed the group at that instant, and heard his 
name coupled with the word honest, in the mouth of Eve, 
though he lost the rest of the sentence. 

“ Thank you for the compliment, my dear young lady,” he 
said ; “ and I wish I could persuade Captain Somebody, of his 
Britannic Majesty’s ship Foam, to be of the same way of think- 
ing. It is all because he will not fancy me honest in the article 


HOMEWARD BOUND, 


103 

of tobacco, that he has got the Montauk dowi^here, on the 
Spanish coast, where the man who built her would not know 
her ; so unnatural and unseemly is it to catch a London liner 
so far out of her track. I shall have to use double care to get 
the good craft home again.” 

“And why this particular difficulty, captain?” Eve, who 
was amused with Mr. Truck’s modes of speech, pleasantly in- 
quired. “ Is it not equally easy to go from one part of the ocean 
as from another ? ” 

“ Equally easy ! Bless you, my dear young lady, you never 
made a more capital mistake in your life. Do you imagine it 
is as easy to go from London to New York, as to go from New 
York to London ? ” 

“ I am so ignorant as to have made this ridiculous mistake, 
if mistake it be ; nor do I now see why it should be other- 
wise.” 

“ Simply because it is up-hill, ma’am. As for our position 
here to the eastward of the Azores, the difficulty is soon ex- 
plained. By dint of coaxing I had got the good old ship so as 
to know every inch of the road on the northern passage, and 
now I shall be obliged to wheedle her along on a new route, 
like a shy horse getting through a new stable-door. One might 
as well think of driving a pig from his sty, as so get a ship out 
of her track.” 

“ We trust to you to do all this and much more at need. 
But to what will these grand omens lead ? Shall we have a 
gale, or is so much magnificent menacing to be taken as an 
empty threat of Nature’s ? ” 

“ That we shall know in the course of the day, Miss Effing- 
ham, though Nature is no bully, and seldom threatens in vain. 
There is nothing more curious to study, or which needs a nicer 
eye to detect, than yqur winds.” 

“ Of the latter I am fully persuaded, captain, for they are 
called the ‘ viewless winds,’ you will remember, and the 
greatest authority we possess, speaks of them as being quite 
beyond the knowledge of man : ‘ That we may hear the sound 
of the wind, but cannot tell whence it cometh, or whither it 
goeth.” ’ 

“ I do not remember the writer you mean, my dear young 
lady,” returned Mr. Truck, quite innocently; “but he was a 
sensible fellow, for I believe Vattel has never yet dared to 
grapple with the winds. There are people who fancy the 
weather is foretold in the almanac ; but, according to my opin- 
ion, it is safer to trust a rheum atis’ of two or three years’ 


104 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


standing. A^good, well-established, old-fashioned rheumatis , 

• — I say nothing of your new-fangled diseases, like the cholera, 
and varioloid, and animal magnitudes — but a good old-fash- 
ioned rheumatis’, such as people used to have when I was a 
boy, is as certain a barometer as that which is at this moment 
hanging up in the coachhouse here, within two fathoms of the 
very spot where we are standing. I once had a rheumatis’ that 
I set much store by, for it would let me know when to look out 
for easterly weather, quite as infallibly as any instrument I ever 
sailed with. I never told you the story of the old Connecticut 
horse-jockey, and the typhoon, I believe ; and as we are doing 
nothing but waiting for the weather to make up its mind — ” 

“ The weather to make up its mind ! ” exclaimed Eve, look- 
ing around her in awe at the sublime and terrific grandeur of 
the ocean, of the heavens, and of the pent and moody air ; 
“ is there an uncertainty in this ? ” 

“ Lord bless you ! my dear young lady, the weather is often 
as uncertain, and as undecided, and as hard to please, too, as 
an old girl who gets sudden offers on the same day, from a 
widower with ten children, an attorney with one leg, and the 
parson of the parish. Uncertain, indeed !' Why I have known 
the weather in this grandiloquent condition for a whole day. ‘ 
Mr. Dodge, there, will tell you it is making up its mind which 
way it ought to blow, to be popular ; so, as we have nothing 
better to do, Mr. Effingham, I will tell you the story about my 
neighbor, the horse-jockey. Hauling yards when there is no 
wind, is like playing on a Jew’s-harp, at a concert of trom- 
bones.” 

Mr. Effingham made a complaisant sign of assent, and 
pressed the arm of the excited Eve for patience. 

“You must know, gentlemen,” the captain commenced, 
looking round to collect as many listeners as possible, — for he 
excessively disliked lecturing to small audiences, when he had 
anything to say that he thought particularly clever, — “ you 
must know that we had formerly many craft that went between 
the river and the islands — ” 

— “ The river ? ” interrupted the amused Mr. Sharp. 

“ Certain ; the Connecticut, I mean ; we all call it the river 
down our way— between the river and the West Indies, with 
horses, cattle, and other knick-knacks of that description. 
Among others was old Joe Bunk, who had followed the trade 
in a high-decked brig for some twenty-three years, he and the 
brig having grown old in company, like man and wife. About 
forty years since, our river ladies began to be tired of their 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


I0 5 

bohea, and as there was a good deal said in favor of souchong 
in those days, an excitement was got up on the subject, as Mr. 
Dodge calls it, and it was determined to make an experiment 
in the new quality, before they dipped fairly into the trade. 
Well, what do you suppose was done in the premises, as Vattel • 
says, my dear young lady ? ” 

Eve’s eyes were still on the grand and portentous aspect of 
the heavens, but she civilly answered, — 

“ No doubt they sent to a shop and purchased a sample.” 

“ Not they; they knew too much for that, since any rogue 
of a grocer might cheat them. When the excitement had got a 
little headway on it, they formed a tea society, with the parson’s 
wife for presidentess, and her eldest daughter for secretary. In 
this way they went to work, until the men got into the fever 
too, and a project was set a-foot to send a craft to China for a 
sample of what they wanted.” 

“ China ! ” exclaimed Eve, this time looking the captain 
fairly in the face. 

“ China, certain ; it lies off hereaway, you know, round on 
the other side of the earth. Well, whom should they choose to 
go on the errand but old Joe Bunk. The old man had been so 
often , to the island and back, without knowing anything of 
navigation, they thought he was just their man, as there was 
no such thing as losing him.” 

“ One would think he was the very man to get lost,” ob- 
served Mr. Effingham, while the captain fitted a fresh cigar ; 
for smoke he would, and did, in any company, that was out of 
the cabin, although he always professed a readiness to cease, 
if any person disliked the fragrance of tobacco. 

“ Not he, sir ; he was just as well off in the Indian Ocean 
as he would be here, for he knew nothing about either. Well, 
Joe fitted up the brig; the Seven Dollies was her name ; for 
you must know we had seven ladies in the town, who were called 
Dolly, and they each of them used to send a colt, or a steer, or 
some other delicate article to the islands by Joe, whenever he 
went ; so he fitted up the Seven Dollies, hoisted in his dollars, 
and made sail. The last that was seen or heard of the old 
man for eight months, was off Montauk, where he was fallen 
in with, two days, out, steering southeasterly, by compass.” 

“ I should think,” observed John Effingham, who began to 
arouse himself as the story proceeded, “ that Mrs. Bunk must 
have been very uneasy all this time ? ” 

“ Not she ; she stuck to the bohea in hopes the souchong 
would arrive before the restoration of the Jews. Arrive it did, 


io6 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


sure enough, at the end of eight months, and a capital adven- 
ture it proved for all concerned. Old Joe got a great name in 
the river for the exploit, though how he got to China no one 
could say, or how he * got back again ; or, for a long time, how 
he got the huge heavy silver teapot, he brought home with 
him.” 

“ A silver teapot ? ” 

“ Exactly that article. At last the truth came to be known ; 
for it is not an easy matter to hide anything of that nature 
down our way ; it is aristocratic, as Mr. Dodge says, to keep a 
secret. At first they tried Joe with all sorts of questions, but 
he gave them ‘ guess/ ‘for guess.’ Then people began to talk, and 
finally it was fairly whispered that the old man had stolen the 
tea-pot. This brought him before the meeting. — Law was out 
of the question, you will understand, as there was no evi- 
dence ; but the meeting don’t stick much at particulars, provided 
people talk a good deal.” 

“And the result ? ” asked John Effingham, “ I suppose the 
parish took the teapot and left Joe the grounds.” 

“You are as far out of the way as we are here, down on the 
coast of Spain ! The truth is just this. The Seven Dollies was 
lying among the rest of them, at anchor, below Canton, with 
the weather as fine as young girls love to see it in May, when 
Joe began to get down his yards, to house his masts, and to 
send out all his spare anchors. He even went so far as to get 
two hawsers fastened to a junk that had grounded a little ahead 
of him. This made a talk among the captains of the vessels, 
and some came on board to ask the reason. Joe told them he 
was getting ready for the typhoon ; but when they inquired his 
reasons for believing there was to be a typhoon at all, Joe looked 
solemn, shook his head,, and said he had reasons enough, but 
they were his own. Had he been explicit, he would have been 
laughed at, but the sight of an old gray-headed man, who had 
been at sea forty years, getting ready in this serious manner, 
set the others at work too : for ships follow each other’s move- 
ments, like sheep running through a breach in the fence. Well, 
that night the typhoon came in earnest, and it blew so hard,- 
that Joe Bunk said he could see the houses in the moon, all the 
air having blown out of the atmosphere.” 

“ But what has this to do with the teapot, Captain Truck ? ” 

“ It is the life and soul of it. The captains in port were so 
delighted with Joe’s foreknowledge, that they clubbed, and pre- 
sented him this pot as a testimony of their gratitude and esteem. 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


107 

He’d got to be popular among them, Mr. Dodge, and that was 
the way they proved it.” 

“ But, pray, how did he know the storm was approaching ? ” 
asked Eve, whose curiosity had been awakened in spite of her- 
self. “ It could not have been that his ‘ foreknowledge’ was 
supernatural.” 

“ That no one can say, for Joe was presbyterian-built, as we 
say, kettle-bottomed, and stowed well. The truth was not dis- 
covered until ten years afterwards, when the old fellow got to 
be a regular cripple, what between rheumatis,’ old age, and 
steaming. One day he had an attack of the first complaint, 
and in one of its most severe paroxysms when nature is apt to 
wince, he roared three times, ‘ a typhoon ! a typhoon ! a 
typhoon ! ’ and the murder was out. Sure enough, the next 
day we had a regular northeaster ; but old Joe got no sign of 
popularity that time. And now, when you get to America, gen- 
tlemen and ladies, you will be able to say you have heard the 
story of Joe Bunk and his teapot.” 

Thereupon Captain Truck took two or three hearty whiffs 
of the cigar, turned his face upwards, and permitted the smoke 
to is_sue forth in a continued stream until it was exhausted, but 
still keeping his head raised in the inconvenient position it had 
taken. The eye of the master, fastened in this manner on 
something aloft, was certain to draw other eyes in the same 
direction, and in a few seconds all around him were gazing in 
the same way, though none but himself could tell why. 

“ Turn up the watch below, Mr. Leach,” Captain Truck at 
length called out, and Eve observed that he threw away the 
cigar, although a fresh one ; a proof, as she fancied, that he was 
preparing for duty. 

The people were soon at their places, and an effort was 
made to get the ship’s head round to the southward. Although 
the frightful stillness of the atmosphere rendered the manoeuvre 
difficult, it succeeded in the end, by profiting by the passing 
and fitful currents, that resembled so many sighings of the air. 
The men were then sent on the yards, to furl all the ' canvas, 
with the exception of the three topsails and the fore-course, 
most of it having been merely hauled up to await the result. 
All those who had ever been at sea before, saw in these prep- 
arations proof that Captain Truck expected the change would 
be sudden and severe : still, as he betrayed no uneasiness, they 
hoped his measures were merely those of prudence. Mr. Effing- 
ham could not refrain from inquiring, however, if there existed 


io8 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


any immediate motives for the preparations that were so actively, 
though not hurriedly, making. 

“ This is no affair for the rheumatis’,” returned the facetious 
master, “ for, look you here, my worthy sir, and you, my dear 
young lady,” — this was a sort of parental familiarity the honest 
Jack fancied he had a right to take with all his unmarried female 
passengers, in virtue of his office, and of his being a bachelor 
drawing hard upon sixty; — “ look you here, my dear young 
lady, and you, too, ma’amselle, for you can understand the clouds, 
I take it, if they are not French clouds ; do you not see the 
manner in which those black-looking rascals are putting their 
heads together ? They are plotting something quite in their own 
way, I’ll warrant you.” 

“The clouds are huddling, and rolling over each other, 
certainly,” returned Eve, who had been struck with the wild 
beauty of their evolutions, “ and a noble, though fearful picture 
they present ; but I do not understand the particular meaning 
of it, if there be any hidden omen in their airy flights.” 

“ No rheumatis’ about you, young lady,” said the captain, 
jocularly ; “ too young, and handsome, and too modern, too, I 
dare say, for that old-fashioned complaint. But on one cate- 
gory you may rely, and that is, that nothing in nature conspires 
without an object.” 

“ But I do not think vapor whirling in a current of air is a 
conspiracy,” answered Eve, laughing, “though it may be a 
category.” 

“ Perhaps not, — who knows, however ; for it is as easy to 
suppose that objects understand each other, as that horses and 
dogs understand each other. We know nothing about it, and, 
therefore, it behoves us to say nothing. If mankind conversed 
only of the things they understood, half the words might be 
struck out of the dictionaries. But, as I was remarking, those 
clouds, you can see, are getting together, and are making ready 
for a start, since here they will not be able to stay much 
longer.” 

“And what will compel them to disappear? ” 

“ Do me the favor to turn your eyes here, to the nor’west. 
You see an opening there that looks like a crouching lion ; is 
it not so ? ” 

“ There is certainly a bright clear streak of sky along the 
margin of the ocean, that has quite lately made its appearance ; 
does it prove that the wind will blow from that quarter ? ” 

“ Quite as much, my dear young lady, as when you open 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


109 

your window it proves that you mean to put your head out 
of it.” 

“ An act a well-bred young woman very seldom performs,” 
observed mademoiselle Viefville ; “ and never in a town.” 

“ No ? Well, in our town on the river, the women’s heads 
are half the time out of the windows. But I do not pretend, 
ma’amselle, to be expert in proprieties of this sort, though 
I can venture to say that I am somewhat of a judge of what 
the winds would be about when they open their shutters. This 
opening to the nor’west, then, is a sure sign of something 
coming out of the window, well-bred or not.” 

“ But,” added Eve, “ the clouds above us, and those farther 
south, appear to be hurrying towards your bright opening, 
captain, instead of from it.” 

“ Quite in nature, gentlemen ; quite in nature, ladies. When 
a man has fully made up his mind to retreat, he blusters the 
most ; and one step forward often’ promises two backward. 
You often see the stormy petterel sailing at a ship as if he 
meant to come aboard, but he takes good care to put his helm 
down before he is fairly in the rigging. So it is with clouds, 
and all other things in nature. Vattel says you may make a 
show of fight when your necessities require it, but that a 
neutral cannot fire a gun, unless against pirates. Now, 
these clouds are putting the best face on the matter, but in a 
few minutes you will see them wheeling as St. Paul didT>efore 
them.” 

“ St. Paul, Captain Truck ! ” 

“Yes, my dear young lady; to the right about.” 

Eve frowned, for she disliked some of these nautical images, 
though it was impossible not to smile in secret at the queer 
associations that so often led the well-meaning master’s dis- 
cursive discourse. His mind was a strange jumble of an early 
religious education, ^-religious as to externals and professions, 
at least, — with subsequent loose observation and much worldly 
experience, and he drew on his stock of information, according 
to his own account of the matter, “ as Saunders, the Steward, 
cut the butter from the firkins, or as it came first.” 

His prediction concerning the clouds proved to be true, for 
half an hour did not pass before they were seen “ scampering 
out of the way of the nor’wester,” to use the captain’s figure, 
“like sheep giving play to the dogs.” . The horizon brightened 
with a rapidity almost supernatural, and, in a surprisingly short 
space of time, the whole of that frowning vault that had been 
shadowed by murky and menacing vapor, sporting its gambols 


no 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


in ominous wildness, was cleared of everything like a cloud, 
with the exception of a few white, rich, fleecy piles, that were 
grouped in the north, like a battery discharging its artillery on 
some devoted field. 

The ship betrayed the arrival of the wind by a cracking of 
the spars, as they settled into their places, and then the huge 
hull began to push aside the waters, and to come under con- 
trol. The first shock was far from severe, though, as the cap- 
tain determined to bring his vessel up as near his course as the 
direction of the breeze would permit, he soon found he had as 
much canvas spread as she could bear. Twenty minutes 
brought him to a single reef, and half an hour to a second. 

By this time attention was drawn to the Foam. The old 
superiority of that cruiser was now apparent again, and calcu- 
lations were made concerning the possibility of avoiding her, if 
they continued to stand on much longer on the present course. 
The captain had hoped the Montauk would have the advantage 
from her greater bulk, when the two vessels should be brought 
down to close-reefed topsails, as he foresaw would be the case ; 
but he was soon compelled to abandon even that hope. Fur- 
ther to the southward he was resolved he would not go, as it 
would be leading him too far astray, and, at last, he came to 
the determination to stand towards the islands, which were as 
near as might be in his track, and to anchor in a neutral road- 
stead, if too hard pressed. 

“ He cannot get up with us before midnight, Leach,” he con- 
cluded the conference held with the mate by saying ; “ and by 
that time the gale will be at its height, if we are to have a gale, 
and then the gentleman will not be desirous of lowering his 
boats. In the mean time, we shall be driving in towards the 
Azores, and it will be nothing out of the course of nature, 
should I find an occasion to play him a trick. As for offering 
up the Montauk a sacrifice on the altar of tobacco, as old Dea- 
con Hourglass used to say in his prayers, it is a category to be 
averted by any catastrophe short of condemnation.” 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


Ill 


CHAPTER XI. 

I, that shower dewy light 

Through slumbering leaves, bring storms ! — the tempest birth 
Of memory, thought, remorse. — Be holy, Earth ! 

I am the solemn Night ! 

Mrs. Hemans. 

In this instance, it is not our task to record any of the phe- 
nomena of the ocean, but a regular, though fierce gale of wind. 
One of the first signs of its severity was the disappearance of 
the passengers from the deck, one shutting himself into his 
room after another, until none remained visible but John Effing- 
ham and Paul Blunt. Both these gentlemen, as it appeared, 
had made so many passages, and had got to be so familiar with 
ships, that sea-sickness and alarms were equally impotent as 
respects their constitutions and temperaments. 

The poor steerage-passengers were no exception, but they 
stole for refuge into their dens, heartily repentant, for the time 
being, at having braved the dangers and discomforts of the sea. 
The gentle wife of Davis would now willingly have returned to 
meet the resentment of her uncle ; and as for the bridegroom 
himself, as Mr. Leach, who passed through this scene of abom- 
inations to see that all was right, described him, — “ Mr. Grab 
would not wring him for a dishcloth, if he could see him in his 
present pickle.” 

Captain Truck chuckled a good deal at this account, for he 
had much the same sympathy for ordinary cases of sea-sickness, 
as a kitten feels in the agony of the first mouse it has caught, 
and which it is its sovereign pleasure to play with, instead of 
eating. 

“ It serves him right, Mr. Leach, for getting married and 
mind you don’t fall into the same abuse of your opportunities,” 
he said, with an air of self-satisfaction, while comparing three or 
four cigars in the palm of his hand, doubtful which of the fra- 
grant plump rolls to put into his mouth. “ Getting married, 
Mr. Blunt, commonly makes a man a fit subject for nausea, and 
nothing is easier than to set the stomach-pump in motion in one 
of your bridegrooms ; is not this true as the gospel, Mr. John 
Effingham ? ” 

Mr. John Effingham made no reply, — but the young man 
who at the moment was admiring his fine form, and the noble 


1 1 2 


HOME WA ED B O UND. 


outline of his features, was singularly struck with the bitterness, 
not to say anguish, of the smile with which he bowed a cold 
assent. All this was lost on Captain Truck, who proceeded 
co?i amore. 

“ One of the first things that I ask concerning my passen- 
gers is, is he married ? when the answer is ‘ no/ I set him 
down as a good companion in a gale like this, or as one who 
can smoke, or crack a joke when a topsail is flying out of a 
bolt-rope, — a companion for a category. Now, if either of you 
gentlemen had a wife, she would have you under hatches to- 
day, lest you should slip through a scupperhole, — or be washed 
overboard with the spray, — or have your eyebrows blown away 
in such a gale, and then I should lose the honor of your com- 
pany. Comfort is too precious to be throwh away in matri- 
mony. A man may gain foreknowledge by a wife, but he 
loses free agency. As for you, Mr. John Effingham, you must 
have coiled away about half a century of life, and there is not 
much to fear on your account; but Mr. Blunt is.. still young 
enough to be in danger of a mishap. I wish Neptune would 
come aboard of us, hereaway, and swear you to be true and 
constant to yourself, young gentleman.” 

Paul laughed, colored slightly, and then rallying, he replied 
in the same voice, — 

“ At the risk of losing your godd opinf 'n; captain, and 
even in the face of this gale, I shall avow myself an advocate 
of matrimony.” 

“ If you will answer me one question, my dear sir, I will 
tell you whether the case is or is not hopeless.” 

“In order to assent to this, you will of course see the 
necessity of letting me know what the question is.” 

“ Have you made up your mind who the young woman shall 
be ? If that point is settled, I can only recommend to you 
some of Joe Bunk’s souchong, and advise you to submit, for 
there is no resisting one’s fate. The reason your Turks yield 
so easily to predestination and fate, is the number of their 
wives. Many a book is written to show the cause of their 
submitting their necks so easily to the sword and the bow- 
string. I’ve been in Turkey, gentlemen, and know something 
of their ways. The reason of their submitting so quietly to be 
beheaded is, that they are always ready to hang themselves. 
How is the fact, sir? have you settled upon the young lady in 
your own mind or not ? ” 

Although there was - nothing in all this but the permitted 
trifling of boon companions on shipboard, Paul Blunt re- 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


JI 3 

ceived it with an awkwardness one would hardly have expected 
in a young man of his knowledge of the world. He reddened, 
laughed, made an effort to throw the captain to a greater dis- 
tance by reserve, and in the end fairly gave up the matter by 
walking to another part of the deck. Luckily, the attention of 
the honest master was drawn to the ship, at that instant, and 
Paul flattered himself he was unperceived • but the shadow of 
a figure at his elbow startled him, and turning quickly, he 
found Mr. John Effingham at his side. 

“ Her mother was an angel,” said the latter huskily. “ I 
too love her ; but it is as a father.” 

“ Sir ! — Mr. Effingham ! — These are sudden and unexpected 
remarks, and such as I am not prepared for.” 

“ Do you think one as jealous of that fair creature as I, 
could have overlooked your passion ? — She is loved by both of 
you, and she merits the warmest affection of a thousand. 
Persevere, for while I have no voice, and, I fear, little in- 
fluence on her decision, some strange sympathy causes me to 
wish you success. My own man told me that you have met 
before, and with her father’s knowledge, and this is all I ask, 
for my kinsman is discreet. He probably knows you, though 
I do not.” 

The face of Paul glowed like fire, and he almost gasped for 
breath. Pitying hL distress, Effingham smiled kindly, and was 
about to quit him, when he felt his hand convulsively grasped 
by those of the young man. 

“ Do not quit me, Mr. Effingham, I entreat you,” he said 
rapidly ; “ it is so unusual for me to hear words of confidence, 
or even of kindness, that they are most precious to me ! I have 
permitted myself to be disturbed by the random remarks of 
that well-meaning but unreflecting man ; but in a moment I 
shall be more composed — more manly — less unworthy of your 
attention and pity.” 

“ Pity is a word I should never have thought of applying to 
the person, character, attainments, or, as I hoped, fortunes of 
Mr. Blunt ; and I sincerely trust that you will acquit me of im- 
pertinence. I have felt an interest in you, young man, that I 
have long ceased to feel in most of my species, and I trust this 
will be some apology for the liberty I have taken. Perhaps the 
suspicion that you were anxious to stand well in the good 
opinion of my little cousin was at the bottom of it all.” 

“ Indeed you have not misconceived my anxiety, sir ; for 
who is there that could be indifferent to the good opinion of 
one so simple and yet so cultivated ; with a mind in which nature 


H4 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


and knowledge seem to struggle for the possession. One, Mr. 
Effingham, so little like the cold sophistication and heartlessness 
of Europe on the one hand, and the unformed girlishness of 
America, on the other ; one, in short, so every way what the 
fondest father or the most sensitive brother could wish.” 

John Effingham smiled, for to smile at any weakness was 
with him a habit ; but his eye glistened. After a moment of 
doubt, he turned to his young companion, and with a delicacy 
of expression and a dignity of manner that none could excel 
him in, when he chose, he put a question that for several days 
had been uppermost in his thoughts, though no fitting occasion 
had ever before offered, on which he thought he might ven- 
ture. 

“ This frank confidence emboldens me — one who ought to 
be ashamed to boast of his greater experience, when every day 
shows him to how little profit it has been turned, — to presume 
to render our acquaintance less formal by alluding to interests 
more personal than strangers have a right to touch on. You 
speak of the two parts of the world just mentioned, in a way to 
show me you are equally acquainted with both.” 

“ I have often crossed the ocean, and, for so young a man, 
have seen a full share of their societies. Perhaps it increases my 
interest in your lovely kinswoman, that, like myself, she properly 
belongs to neither.” 

“ Be cautious how you whisper that in her ear, my youthful 
friend ; for Eve Effingham fancies herself as much American in 
character as in birth. Single-minded and totally without man- 
agement ; devoted to her duties ; religious without cant ; a 
warm friend of liberal institutions, without the slightest approach 
to the impracticable ; in heart and soul a woman ; you will find 
it hard to persuade her, that with all her practice in the world, 
and all her extensive attainments, she is more than a humble 
copy of her own great beau ideal.” 

Paul smiled, and his eyes met those of John Effingham — 
the expression of both satisfied the parties that they thought 
alike in more things than in their common admiration of the 
subject of their discourse. 

“ I feel I have not been as explicit as I ought to be with 
you, Mr. Effingham,” the young man resumed, after a pause;: 
“ but on a more fitting occasion, I shall presume on your 
kindness to be less reserved. My lot has thrown me on the 
world, almost without friends, quite without relatives, so far as 
intercourse with them is concerned ; and I have known little of 
the language or the acts of the affections.” 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


"S 

John Effingham pressed his hand, and from that time he 
cautiously abstained from any allusion to his personal concerns ; 
for a suspicion crossed his mind that the subject was painful 
to the young man. He knew that thousands of well-educated 
and frequently of affluent people, of both sexes, were to be found 
in Europe, to whom, from the circumstance of having been born 
out of wedlock, through divorces, or other family misfortunes, 
their private histories were painful, and he at once inferred 
that some such event, quite probably the first, lay at the bottom 
of Paul Blunt’s peculiar situation. Nothwithstanding his warm 
attachment to Eve, he had too much confidence in her own as 
well as her father’s judgment, to suppose an acquaintance of 
any intimacy would be lightly permitted; and as to the mere 
prejudices connected with such subjects, he was quite free 
from them. ’ Perhaps his masculine independence of character 
caused him, on all such points, to lean to the side of the ultra 
in liberality. 

In this short dialogue, with the exception of the slight 
though unequivocal allusion of John Effingham, both had avoided 
any farther allusions to Mr. Sharp, or to his supposed attach- 
ment to Eve. Both were confident of its existence, and this per- 
haps was one reason why neither felt any necessity to advert to it : 
for it was a delicate subject, and one, under the circumstances, 
that they would mutually wish to forget in their cooler moments. 
The conversation then took a more general character, and for 
several hours that day, while the rest of the passengers were 
kept below by the state of the weather, these two were together, 
laying, what perhaps it was now too late to term, the founda- 
tion of a generous and sincere friendship. Hitherto Paul had 
regarded John Effingham with distrust and awe, but he found 
him a man so different from what report and his own fancy had 
pictured, that the reaction in his feelings served to heighten 
them, and to aid in increasing his respect. On the other hand, 
the young man exhibited so much modest good sense, a fund 
of information so much beyond his years, such * integrity and 
justice of sentiment, that when they separated for the night, 
the old bachelor was full of regret that nature had not made 
him the parent of such a son. 

All this time the business of the ship had gone on. The 
wind increased steadily, until as the sun went down, Captain 
Truck announced it in the cabin, to be a “ regular-built gale of 
wind.” Sail after sail had beeji reduced or furled, until the 
Montauk was lying-to under her foresail, a close-reefed main- 
topsail, a fore-topmast staysail, and a mizzen staysail. Doubts 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


116 

were even entertained whether the second of these sails would 
not have to be handed soon, and the foresail itself reefed. 

The ship’s head was to the south-southwest, her drift con- 
siderable, and her way of course barely sufficient to cause her 
to feel her helm. The Foam had gained on her several miles 
during the time sail could be carried ; but she also, had been 
obliged to heave-to, at the same increase of the sea and wind 
as that which had forced Mr. Truck to lash his wheel down. 
This state of things made a considerable change in the relative 
positions of the two vessels again ; the next morning showing 
the sloop-of-war hull down, and well on the weather-beam of 
the packet. Her sharper mould and more weatherly qualities 
had done her this service, as became a ship intended for war 
and the chase. 

At all this, however, Captain Truck laughed. He could not 
be boarded in such weather, and it was matter of indifference 
where his pursuer might be, so long as he had time to escape, 
when the gale ceased. On the whole, he was rather glad than 
otherwise of the present state of things, for it offered a chance 
to slip away to leeward as soon as the weather would permit, if, 
indeed, his tormentor did not altogether disappear in the 
northern board, or to windward 

The hopes and fears of the worthy master, however were 
poured principally into the ears of his two mates ; for few of the 
passengers were visible until the afternoon of the second day of 
the gale ; then, indeed, a general relief to their physical suffering 
occurred, though it was accompanied by apprehensions that 
scarcely permitted the change to be enjoyed. About noon, on 
that day, the wind came with such power, and the seas poured 
down against the bows of the ship with a violence so tremendous, 
.that it got to be questionable whether she could any longer re- 
main with safety in her present condition. Several times in the 
coi*rse of the morning, the waves had forced her bows off, and 
before the ship could recover her position, the succeeding billow 
would break against her broadside, and throw a flood of w'ater 
on her decks. This is a danger peculiar to lying-to in a gale ; 
for if the vessel get into the trough of the sea, and is met in 
that situation by a wave of unusual magnitude, she runs the 
double risk of being thrown on her beam-ends, and of haying 
her decks cleared of everything, by the cataract of water that 
washes athwart them. Landsmen entertain little notion of the 
power of the waters, when driven before a tempest, and are often 
surprised, in reading of naval catastrophes, at the description of 
the injuries done. But experience shows that boats, hurricane- 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


117 

houses, guns, anchors of enormous weight, bulwarks and planks, 
are even swept off into the ocean, in this manner, or are ripped 
up from their fastenings. 

The process of lying-to has a double advantage, so long as 
it can be maintained, since it offers the strongest portion of 
the vessel to the shock of the seas, and has the merit of keep- 
ing her as near as possible to the desired direction. But it is 
a middle course, being often adopted as an expedient of safety 
when a ship cannot scud ; and then, again, it .is abandoned for 
scudding when the gale is so intensely severe that it becomes 
in itself dangerous. In nothing are the high qualities of ships 
so thoroughly tried as in their manner of behaving, as it is 
termed, in these moments of difficulty ; nor is the seamanship 
of the accomplished officer so triumphantly established in any 
other part of his professional knowledge/ as when he has had 
an opportunity of showing that he knows how to dispose of the 
vast weight his vessel is to carry, so as to enable her mould to 
exhibit its perfection, and on occasion to turn both to the best 
account. 

Nothing will seem easier to a landsman than for a vessel to 
run before the wind, let the force of the gale be what it may. 
But his ignorance overlooks most of the difficulties, nor shall 
we anticipate their dangers, but let them take their places in 
the regular thread of the narrative. 

Long before noon, or the hour mentioned, Captain Truck 
foresaw that, in consequence of the seas that were constantly 
coming on board of her, he should be compelled to put his 
ship before the wind. He delayed the manoeuvre to the last 
moment,, however, for what he deemed to be sufficient reasons. 
The longer he kept the ship lying-to, the less he deviated from 
his proper course to New York, and the greater was the prob- 
ability of his escaping, stealthily and without observation from 
the Foam, since the latter, by maintaining her position better, 
allowed the Montauk to drift gradually to leeward, and, of 
course, to a greater distance. 

But the crisis would no longer admit of delay. All hands 
were called ; the maintop-sail was hauled up, not without much 
difficulty, and then Captain Truck reluctantly gave the order to 
haul down the mizzen-staysail, to put the helm hard up, and to 
help the ship round with the yards. This is at all times a 
critical change, as has just been mentioned, for the vessel is 
exposed to the ravages of any sea, larger than common, that 
may happen to strike her as she lies, nearly motionless, with 
her broadside exposed to its force. To accomplish it, there- 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


1 18 

fore, Captain Truck went up a few ratlines in the fore-rigging, 
(he was too nice a calculator to offer even a surface as small 
as his own body to the wind, in the after shrouds,) whence he 
looked out to windward for a lull, and a moment when the 
ocean had fewer billows than common of the larger and more 
dangerous kind. At the desired instant he signed with his 
hand, and the wheel was shifted from hard-down to hard-up. 

This is always a breathless moment in a ship, for as none 
can foresee the result, it resembles the entrance of a hostile 
battery. A dozen men may be swept away in an instant, or 
the ship herself hove over on her side. John Effingham and 
Paul, who of all the passengers were alone on deck, understood 
the hazards, and they watched the slightest change with the 
interest of men who had so much at stake. At first the move- 
ment of the ship was sluggish, and such as ill-suited the eager- 
ness of the crew. Then her pitching ceased, and she settled 
into the enormous trough bodily, or the whole fabric sunk, as 
it were, never to rise again. So low did she fall, that the fore- 
sail gave a tremendous flap ; one that shook the hull and spars 
from stem to stern. As she rose on the next surge, happily 
its foaming crest slid beneath her, and the tall masts rolled 
heavily to windward. Recovering her equilibrium-, the ship 
started through the brine, and as the succeeding roller came 
on, she was urging ahead fast. Still, the sea struck her abeam 
forcing her bodily to leeward, and heaving the lower yard-arms 
into the ocean. Tons of water fell on her decks, with the dull 
sound of the clod on the coffin. At this grand moment, old 
Jack Truck, who was standing, in the rigging, dripping with the 
" spray, that had washed over him, with a naked head, and his 
gray hair glistening, shouted like a Stentor, “ Haul in your 
force-braces, boys ! away with the yard, like a fiddlestick 1 ” 
Every nerve was strained ; the unwilling yards, pressed upon 
by an almost irresistible t;olumn of air yielded slowly, and as 
the sail met the gale more perpendicularly, or at right angles 
to its surface, it dragged the vast hull through the sea with a 
power equal to that of a steam-engine. Ere another sea could 
follow, the Montauk was glancing through the ocean at a furi- 
ous rate, and though offering her quarter to the billows, their 
force was now so much diminished by her own velocity, as to 
deprive them of their principal danger. 

The motion of the ship immediately became easy, though 
her situation was still far from being without risk. No longer 
compelled to buffet the waves, but sliding along in their com- 
pany, the motion ceased to disturb the systems of the passengers, 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


Ii 9 

and ten minutes had not elapsed before most of them were 
again on deck, seeking the relief of the open air. Among the 
others was Eve, leaning on the arm of her father. 

It was a terrific scene, though one might now contemplate 
it without personal inconvenience. The gentlemen gathered 
around the beautiful and appalled spectatress of this grand 
sight, anxious to know the effect it might produce on one of her 
delicate frame and habits. She expressed herself as awed, but 
not alarmed ; for the habits of dependence usually leave females 
less affected by fear in such cases, than those who, by their sex, 
are supposed to be responsible. 

“ Mademoiselle Viefville has promised to follow me,” she 
said, “ and as I have a national claim to be a sailor, you are 
not to expect hysterics or even ecstasies from me ; but reserve 
yourselves, gentlemen, for the Parisienne. 

The Parisienne, sure enough, soon came out of the hurri- 
cane-house, with elevated hands, and eyes eloquent of admira- 
tion, wonder and fear. Her first exclamations were those 
of terror, and then turning a wistful look on Eve, she burst 
into tears. “ Ah ceci est decisif /” she exclaimed. “When we 
part, we shall be separated for life.” 

“ Then we will not part at all, my dear mademoiselle ; you 
have only to remain in America, to escape all future inconveni- 
ence of the ocean. But forget the danger, and admire the sub- 
limity of this terrific panorama.” 

Well might Eve thus term the scene. The hazards now to 
be avoided were those of the ship’s broaching-to, and of being 
pooped. Nothing may seem easier, as has been said, than to “ sail 
before the wind,” the words having passed into a proverb ; but 
there are times when even a favoring gale becomes prolific of 
dangers, that we shall now briefly explain. 

The velocity of the water, urged as it is before a tempest, is 
often as great as. that of the ship, and at such moments the 
rudder is useless, its whole power being derived from its action 
as a moving body against the element in comparative repose. 
When ship and water move together, at an equal rate, in the 
same direction of course this power of the helm is neutralized, 
and then the hull is driven much at the mercy of the winds and 
waves. Nor is this all ; the rapidity of the billows often ex- 
ceeds that of a ship, and then the action of the rudder becomes 
momentarily reversed, producing an effect exactly opposite to 
that which is desired. It is true, this last difficulty is never of 
more than a few moments’ continuance, else indeed would the 
condition of the mariner be hopeless ; but it is of constant oc- 


120 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


currence, and so irregular as to defy calculations and defeat 
caution. In the present instance, the Montauk would seem to 
fly through the water, so swift was her progress ; and then, as 
a furious surge overtook her in the chase, she settled heavily 
into the element, like a wounded animal, that, despairing of 
escape, sinks helplessly in the grass, resigned to fate. At such 
times the crests of the waves swept past her, like vapor in the 
atmosphere, and one upractised would be apt think the ship 
stationary, though in truth whirling along in company with a 
frightful momentum. 

It is scarcely necessary to say, the process of scudding re- 
quires the nicest attention to the helm, in order that the hull 
may be brought speedily back to the right direction, when 
thrown aside by the power of the billows ; for, besides losing 
her way in the caldron of water — an imminent danger of itself 
— if left exposed to the attack of the succeeding waves, her 
decks, at least, would be swept, even should she escape a still 
more serious calamity. 

Pooping is a hazard of another nature, and is also peculiar 
to the process of scudding. It merely means the ship’s being 
overtaken by the waters while running from them, when the 
crest of a sea, broken by the resistance, is thrown inboard, over 
the taffrail or quarter. The term is derived from the name of 
that particular portion of the ship. In order to avoid this risk, 
sail is carried on the vessel as long as possible, it being deemed 
one of tjie greatest securities of scudding, to force the hull 
through the water at the greatest attainable rate. In conse- 
quence of these complicated risks, ships that sail the fastest 
and steer the easiest, scud the best. There is, however, a 
species of velocity that becomes of itself a source of new dan- 
ger ; thus, exceedingly sharp vessels have been known to force 
themselves so far into the watery mounds in their front, and to 
receive so much of the element on deck, as never to rise again. 
This is a fate to which those who attempt to sail the American 
clipper, without understanding its properties, are peculiarly 
liable. On account of this risk, however, there was now no 
cause of apprehension, the full-bowed, kettle-bottomed Montauk 
being exempt from the danger ; though Captain Truck intimated 
his doubts whether the corvette would like to brave the course 
he had himself adopted. 

In this opinion, the fact would seem to sustain the master 
of the packet ; for when the night shut in, the spars of the Foam 
were faintly discernible, drawn like spiders’ webs on the bright 
streak of the evening sky. In a few more minutes, even this 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


12 I 


tracery which resembled that of a magic lantern, vanished from 
the eyes of those aloft ; for it had not been seen by any on deck 
for more than an hour. 

The magnificent horrors of the scene increased with the 
darkness. Eve and her companions stood supported by the 
hurricane-house, watching it for hours, the supernatural looking 
light, emitted by the foaming sea, rendering the spectacle one 
of attractive terror. Even the consciousness of the hazards 
heightened the pleasure ; for there was a solemn and grand en- 
joyment mingled with it all, and the first watch had been set an 
hour, before the party had resolution enough to tear themselves 
from the sublime sight of a raging sea. 


CHAPTER XII. 

Touch . Wast ever in court, shepherd? 

Cor. No, truly. 

Touch. Then thou art damn’d. 

Cor. Nay, I hope 

Touch. Truly, thou art damn’d, like an ill-roasted egg, all on one side. 

As You Like it. 

No one thought of seeking his berth when all the passen- 
gers were below. Some conversed in broken, half intelligible 
dialogues, a few tried unavailingly to read, and more sat look- 
ing at each other in silent misgivings, as the gale howled 
through the cordage and spars, or among the angles and bul- 
warks of the ship. Eve was seated on a sofa in her own apart- 
ment, leaning on the breast of her father, gazing silently through 
the open doors into the forward cabin ; for all idea of retiring 
within oneself, unless it might be to secret prayer, was banished 
from the mind. Even Mr. Dodge had forgotten the gnawings 
of envy, his philanthropical and exclusive democracy, and, what 
was perhaps more convincing still of his passing views of this 
sublunary world, his profound deference for rank, as betrayed 
in his strong desire to cultivate an intimacy with Sir George 
Templemore. As for the baronet himself, he sat by the cabin- 
table with his face buried in his hands, and once he had been 
heard to express a regret that he had ever embarked. 

Saunders broke the moody stillness of this characteristic 
party, with preparations for a supper. He took but one end of 


122 


HOME WARD BOUND. 


the table for his cloth, and a single cover showed that Captain 
Truck was about to dine, a thing he had not yet done that- day. 
The attentive steward had an eye to his commander’s tastes ; 
for it is not often one sees a better garnished board than was 
spread on this occasion, so far at least as quantity was con- 
cerned. Besides the usual solids of ham, corned-beef, and 
roasted shoat, there were carcasses of ducks, pickled oysters — 
a delicacy almost peculiar to America — and all the minor condi- 
ments of olives, anchovies, dates, figs, almonds, raisins, cold 
potatoes, and puddings, displayed in a single course, and ar- 
ranged on the table solely with regard to the reach of Captain 
Truck’s arm. Although Saunders was not quite without taste, 
he too well knew the propensities of his superior to neglect any 
of these important essentials, and great care was had, in parti- 
cular, so to dispose of everything as to render the whole so 
many radii diverging from a common centre, which centre was 
the stationary arm-chair that the master of the packet loved to 
fill in his hours of ease. 

“ You will make many voyages, Mr. Toast,” — the steward 
affectedly gave his subordinate, or as he was sometimes face- 
tiously called, the steward’s mate, reason to understand, when 
they had retired to the pantry to await the captain’s appearance 
— “ before you accumulate all the niceties of a gentleman’s 
dinner. Every plat” (Saunders had been in the Havre line, 
where he had caught a few words of this nature,) “ every plat 
should- be within reach of the convive’s arm, and particularly if 
it happen to be Captain Truck, who has a great awersion to 
delays at his diet. As for the entremets , they may be scattered 
miscellaneously with the* salt and the mustard, so that they can 
come with facility in their proper places.” 

“ I don’t know what an entremet is,” returned the subordi- 
nate, “ and I exceedingly desire, sir to receive my orders in 
such English as a gentleman can diwine.” 

“ An entremet , Mr. Toast, is a mouthful thrown in promis- 
cuously between the reliefs of the solids. Now, suppose a 
gentleman begins on pig ; when he has eaten enough of this, 
he likes a little brandy and water, or a glass of porter, before 
he cuts into the beef ; and while I’m mixing the first, or start- 
ing the cork, he refreshes himself with an entremet , such as a 
wing of a duck, or perhaps a plate of pickled oysters. You 
must know that there is great odds in passengers ; one set eat- 
ing and jollifying, from the hour we sail till the hour we get in, 
while another takes the ocean as it might be sentimentally.” 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


123 

“ Sentimentally, sir ! I s’pose those be they as uses the 
basins uncommon ? ” 

“ That depends on the weather. I’ve known a party not 
eat as much as would set one handsome table in a week, and 
then, when they conwalesced, it was intimidating how’they de- 
woured. It makes a great difference, too, whether the passen- 
gers acquiesce well together or not, for agreeable feelings give a 
fine appetite. Lovers make cheap passengers always.” 

“Thatisextr’or’nary, for I thought such as they was always 
hard to please, with everything but one another.” 

“ You never were more mistaken. I’ve seen a lover who 
couldn’t tell a sweet potato from an onion, or a canvas-back 
from an old wife. But of all mortals in the way of passengers 
the bagman or go-between is my greatest animosity. These 
fellows will sit up all night, if the captain consents, and lie 
abed next day, and do nothing but drink in their berths. Now, 
this time we have a compliable set, and on the whole, it is, 
quite a condescension and pleasure to wait on them.” 

“ Well I think, Mr. Saunders, they isn’t alike as much as 
they might be nother.” 

“ Not more so than wenison and pig. Perfectly correct, 
sir ; for this cabin is a lobskous as regards deportment and 
character. I set all the Effinghams down as tip-tops, or, A 
No. 1, as Mr. Leach calls the ship ; and then Mr. Sharp and 
Mr. Blunt are quite the gentlemen. Nothing is easier, Mr. 
Toast, than to tell a gentleman ; and as you have set up a 
new profession, — in which I hope, for the credit of the color, 
you will be prosperous, — it is well worth your while to know 
how this is done, especially as you need never expect much 
from a passenger, that is not a true gentleman, but trouble. 
There is Mr. John Effingham, in particular; his man says he 
never anticipates change, and if a coat confines his arm, he re- 
pudiates it on the spot.” 

“ Well, it must be a satisfaction to serve such a companion, 
I think Mr. Dodge, sir, quite a feller.” 

“ Your taste, Toast, is getting to be observable, and by 
cultivating it ,you will soon be remarkable for a knowledge of 
mankind. Mr. Dodge, as you werry justly insinuate, is not 
werry refined, or particularly well suited to figure in genteel 
society.” 

“ And yet he seems attached to it, Mr. Saunders, for he has 
purposed to establish five or six societies since we sailed.” 

“ Werry true, sir ; but then every society is not genteel. 
When we get back to New York, Toast, I must see and get you 


124 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


into a better set than the one you occupied when we sailed. 
You will not do yet for our circle, which is altogether conclu- 
sive ; but you might be elevated. Mr. Dodge has been elec- 
tioneering with me, to see if we cannot inwent a society among 
the steerage-passengers for the abstinence of liquors, and 
another for the perpetration of the morals and religious princi- 
ples of our forefathers. As for the first, Toast, I told him it 
was sufficiently indurable to be confined in a hole like the 
steerage, without being precluded from the consolation of a little 
drink ; and as for the last, it appeared to me that such a propo- 
sition inwolwed an attack on liberty of conscience.” 

“There you give’d him, sir, quite as good as he sent,” 
returned the steward’s mate, chuckling, or perhaps sniggering 
would be a word better suited to his habits of cachination, 
“ and I should have been glad to witness his confusion. It 
seems to me, Mr. Saunders, that Mr. Dodge loves to get up his 
societies in support of liberty and religion, that he may pre- 
dominate over both by his own inwentions.” 

Saunders laid his long yellow finger on the broad flat nose 
of his mate, with an air of approbation, as he replied, — 

“Toast, you have hit his character as pat as I touch your 
Roman. He is a man fit to make proselytes among the wulgar 
and Irish,” — the Hibernian peasant and the American negro 
are sworn enemies — “but quite unfit for anything respectable 
or decent. Were it not for Sir George, I would scarcely 
descend to clean his stateroom.” 

“ What is your sentiments, Mr. Saunders, respecting Sir 
George ! ” 

“ Why, Sir George is a titled gentlemen, and of course is not 
to be strictured too freely. He has complimented me already 
with a sovereign, and apprised me of his intention to be more 
particular when we get in.” 

“ I feel astonished such, a gentleman should neglect to se- 
cure a stateroom to his own convenience.” 

“ Sir George has elucidated all' that in a conversation we 
had in his room, soon after our acquaintance commenced. He 
is going to Canada on public business, and sailed at an hour’s 
interval. He was too late for a single room, and his own man 
is to follow with most of his effects by the next ship. Oh ! Sir 
George may be safely put down as respectable and liberalized, 
though thrown into disparagement perhaps by forty circum- 
stances.” 

Mr. Saunders, who had run his vocubulary hard in this con- 
versation, meant to say “ fortuitous ; ” and Toast thought that 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


!2S 

so many circumstances might well reduce a better man to a 
dilemma. After a moment of thought, or what in his orbicular 
shining features he fancied passed for thought, he said, — 

“ I seem to diwine, Mr. Saunders, that the Effinghams do not 
much intimate Sir George.” 

Saunders looked out of the pantry-door to reconnoitre, and 
finding the sober quiet already described reigning, he opened a 
drawer, and drew forth a London newspaper. 

“ To treat you with the confidence of a gentleman in a situa- 
tion as respectable and responsible as the one you occupy, Mr. 
Toast,” he said, “ a little ewent transpired in my presence yes- 
terday, that I thought sufficiently particular to be designated 
by retaining this paper. Mr. Sharp and Sir George happened 
to be in the cabin together, alone, and the last, as it suggested 
to me, Toast, was desirous of removing seme of the haughter 
of the first,' for you may have observed that there has been no 
conversation between any of the Effinghams, or Mr. Blunt, or 
Mr. Sharp, and the baronet ; and . so to break the ice of his 
haughter, as it might be, Sir George says, ‘ Really, Mr. Sharp, 
the papers have got to be so personally particular, that one 
cannot run into the country for a mouthful of fresh air that they 
don’t record it. Now, I thought not a soul knew of my depart- 
ure for America, and yet here you see they have mentioned it, 
with more particulars than are agreeable.’ On concluding, Sir 
George gave Mr. Sharp this paper, and indicated this here para- 
graph. Mr. Sharp perused it, laid down the paper, and retorted 
coldly, ‘ It is indeed quite surprising, sir ; but impudence is a 
general fault of the age.’ And then he left the cabin solus. 
Sir George was so wexed, he went into his stateroom and for- 
got the paper, which fell to the steward, you know, on a prin- 
ciple laid down in Wattel, Toast.” 

Here the two worthies indulged in a smothered merriment 
of their own at the expense of their commander ; for though a 
dignified man in general, Mr. Saunders could laugh on occasion, 
and according to his own opinion of himself he danced par- 
ticularly well. 

“ Would you like to read the paragraph, Mr. Toast ? ” 

“ Quite unnecessary, sir ; your account will be perfectly 
legible and satisfactory.” 

By this touch of politeness, Mr. Toast, who knew as much 
of the art of reading as a monkey commonly knows of mathe- 
matics, got rid of the awkwardness of acknowledging the careless 
manner in which he had trifled with his early opportunities. 
Luckily, Mr. Saunders, who had been educated as a servant in 


126 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


a gentleman’s family, was better off, and as he was vain of all 
his advantages, he was particularly pleased to have an opportu- 
nity of exhibiting them. Turning to the paragraph he read the 
following lines, in that sort of didactic tone and elaborate style 
with which gentlemen tvho commence the graces after thirty 
are a little apt to make bows : 

“ We understand Sir George Templemore, Bart., the member 
for Boodleigh, is about to visit our American colonies, with a 
view to make himself intimately acquainted with the merits of 
the unpleasant questions by which they are just now agitated, 
and with the intention of entering into the debates in the house 
on that interesting subject on his return. We believe that Sir 
George will sail in the packet of the first from Liverpool, and 
will return in time to be in his seat after the Easter holidays. 
His people and effects left town yesterday by the Liverpool 
coach. During the baronet’s absence, his country will be 
hunted by Sir Gervaise de Brush, though the establishment at 
Templemore Hall will be kept up.” 

“ How came Sir George here, then ? ” Mr. Toast very 
naturally inquired. 

“ Having' been kept too late in London, he was obliged to 
come this way or to be left. It is sometimes as close work to 
get the passengers on board, Mr. Toast, as to get the people. 
I have often admired how gentlemen and ladies love procrasti- 
nating, when dishes that ought to be taken hot, are getting to 
be quite insipid and uneatable.” 

“ Saunders ! ” cried the hearty voice of Captain Truck, 
who had taken possession of what he called his throne in the 
cabin. All the steward’s elegant diction and finish of demeanor 
vanished at the well-known sound, and thrusting his head out 
of the pantry-door, he gave the prompt ship-answer to a call, 

“ Ay, ay, sir ! ” 

“ Come, none of your dictionary in the pantry there, but 
show your physiognomy in my presence. What the devil do 
you think Vattel would say to such a supper as this ? ” 

“ I think, sir, he would call it a werry good supper, for a 
ship in a hard gale of wind. That’s my honest opinion, Cap- 
tain Truck, and I never deceive any gentleman in a matter of 
food. I think, Mr. Wattel would approve of that there supper, 
sir.” 

“ Perhaps he might, for he has made blunders as well as 
another man. Go, mix me a glass of just what I love, when 
I’ve not had a drop all day. Gentlemen, will any of you honor 
me, by sharing in a cut ! This beef is not indigestible, and 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


127 

here is a real Marylander, in the way of a ham. No want of 
oakum to fill up the chinks with, either/’ 

Most of the gentlemen were too full of the gale to wish to 
eat; besides they had not fasted like Captain Truck since 
morning. But Mr. Monday, the bagman, as John Effingham 
had termed him, and who had been often enough at sea to 
know something of its varieties, consented to take a glass of 
brandy and water, as a corrective of the Madeira he had been 
swallowing. The appetite of Captain Truck was little affected 
by the state of the weather, however ; for though too attentive to 
his duties to quit the deck until he had ascertained how matters 
were going on, now that he had fairly made up his mind to eat, 
he set about it with a heartiness and simplicity that proved 
his total disregard of appearances when his hunger was sharp. 
For some time he was too much occupied to talk, making 
regular attacks upon the different plats, as Mr. Saunders called 
them, without much regard to the cookery or the material. The 
only pauses were to drink, and this was always done with a 
steadiness that never left a drop in the glass. Still Mr. Truck 
was a temperate man ; for he never consumed more than his 
physical wants appeared to require, or his physical energies 
knew how to dispose of. At length, however, he came to the 
steward’s entremets, or he began to stuff what he, himself, had 
called “ oakum,” into the chinks of his dinner. 

Mr. Sharp had watched the whole process from the ladies’ 
cabin, as indeed had Eve, and thinking this a favorable 
occasion to ascertain the state of things on deck, the former 
came into the main-cabin, commissioned by the latter, to make 
the inquiry. 

“ The ladies are desirous of knowing where we are, and 
what is the state of the gale, Captain Truck,” said the gentle- 
man, when he had seated himself near the throne. 

“ My dear young lady,” called out the captain, by way of 
cutting short the diplomacy of employing ambassadors between 
them, “I wish ii^my heart I could persuade you and Mademoi- 
selle V.A.V., (for so he called the governess, in imitation of 
Eve’s pronunciation of her name,) to try a few of these pickled 
oysters ; they are as delicate as yourselves, and worthy to be 
set before a mermaid, -if there were any such thing.” 

“ I thank you for the compliment, Captain Truck, and 
while I ask leave to decline it, I beg leave to refer you to the 
plenipotentiary Mademoiselle Viefville ” (Eve would not say 
herself) “ has intrusted with her wishes.” 

“ Thus you perceive, sir,” interposed Mr. Sharp again, “ you 


128 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


will have to treat with me, by all the principles laid down by 
Vattel.” 

“And, treat you, too, my good sir. Let me persuade you to try 
a slice of this anti-abolitionist, ” laying his knife on the ham, 
which he still continued to regard himself with a sort of 
melancholy interest. “ No ? well, I hold over-persuasion as the 
next thing to neglect. I am satisfied, sir, after all, as Saun- 
ders says, that Vattel himself, unless more unreasonable at his 
grub than in matters of state, would be a happier man after 
he had been at his table twenty minutes, than before he sat 
down.” 

Mr. Sharp perceiving that it was idle to pursue his inquriy 
while the other was in one of his discursive humors, determined 
to let things take their course, and fell into the captain’s own 
vein. 

“ If Vattel would approve of the repast, few men ought to 
repine at their fortune in being so well provided.” 

“ I flatter myself, sir, that I understand a supper, espe- 
pecially in a gale of wind, as well as Mr. Vattel, or any other 
man could do.” 

“ And yet Vattel was one of the most celebrated cooks of 
his day.” 

Captain Truck stared, looked his grave companion steadily 
in the eye, for he was too much addicted to mystifying not 
to distrust others, and picked his teeth with redoubled vigi- 
lance. 

“ Vattel a cook ! This is the first I ever heard of it.” 

“ There was a Vattel, in a former age, who stood at the head 
of his art as a cook ; this I can assure you, on my honor : he 
may not have been your Vattel, however.” 

“ Sir, there never were two Vattels. This is extraordinary 
news to me, and I scarcely know how to receive it.” 

“ If you doubt my information, you may ask any of the other 
passengers. Either of the Mr. Effinghams, or Mr. Blunt, or 
Miss Effingham, or Mademoiselle Viefville will confirm, what I 
tell you, I think ; especially the latter, for he was her country- 
man.” 

Hereupon Captain Truck began to stuff in the oakum again, 
for the calm countenance of Mr. Sharp produced an effect ; and 
as he was pondering on the consequences of his oracle’s turn- 
ing out to be a cook, he thought it not amiss to be eating, as 
it were, incidentally. After swallowing a dozen olives, six or 
eight anchovies, as many pickled oysters, and raisins and 
almonds, as the advertisements say a volonte , he suddenly 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


129 

struck his fist on the table, and announced his intention of 
putting the question to both the ladies. 

“ My dear young lady,” he called out, “ will you do me the 
honor to say whether you ever he'ard of a cook of the name of 
Vattel ? ” 

Eve laughed, and her sweet tones were infectious amid the 
dull howling of the gale, which was constantly heard in the 
cabins, like a bass accompaniment, or the distant roar of a 
cataract among the singing of birds. 

“ Certainly, captain,” she answered ; “ Mr. Vattel was not 
only a cook, but perhaps the most celebrated on record, for 
sentiment at least, if not for skill.” 

“ I mate no doubt the man did his work well, let him be 
set about what he might ; and, mademoiselle, he was a coun- 
tryman of .yours, they tell me ? ” 

“ Assurement , Monsieur Vattel has left more distinguished 
souve?iirs than any other cook in France ? ” 

Captain Truck turned quickly to the elated and admiring 
Saunders, who felt his own glory enhanced by this important 
discovery, and said in that short-hand way he had of express- 
ing himself to the chief of the pantry, — 

“ Do you hear that, sir ; see and find out what they are 
and dress me a dish of these souvenirs as soon as we get in. I 
daresay they are to be had at the Fulton market, and mind 
while there to look out for some tongues and sounds. I’ve not 
made half a supper to-night, for the want of them. I daresay 
these souvenirs are capital eating, if Monsieur Vattel thought 
so highly of them. Pray, mademoiselle is the gentleman 
dead ? ” 

“ Helas , oui ! How could he live with a sword run through 
his body.” 

“Ha! killed in a duel, I declare ; died fighting for his 
principles, if the truth were known ! I shall have a double 
respect for his opinion, for this is the touchstone of a man’s 
honesty. Mr. Sharp, let us take a glass of Geissenheimer to 
his memory ; we might honor a less worthy man.” 

As the captain poured out the liquor, a fall of several tons 
of water on the deck shook the entire ship, and one of the 
passengers in the hurricane-house, opening a door to ascertain 
the cause, the sound of the 'hissing waters and of the roaring 
winds came fresher and more distinct into the cabin. Mr. 
Truck cast an eye at the telltale over his head to ascertain 
the course of the ship, and paused just an instant, and then 
tossed off his wine. 


130 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


“ This hint reminds me of my mission,” Mr. Sharp rejoined. 
“ The ladies desire to know your opinion of the state of the 
weather ? ” 

“ I owe them an answer, if it were only in gratitude for the 
hint about Vattel. Who the devil would have supposed the 
man ever was a cook ! But these Frenchmen are not like the 
rest of mankind, and half the nation are cooks, or live by food, 
in some way or other.” 

“ And very good cooks, too, Monsieur le Capitaine,” said 
Mademoiselle Yiefville. “ Monsieur Vattel did die for the 
honor of his art. He fell on his own sword, because the fish 
did not arrive in season for the dinner of the king.” 

Captain Truck looked more astonished than ever. Then turn- 
ing short round to the steward, he shook his head and ex- 
claimed, — 

“ Do you hear that, sir ? How often would you have died, 
if a sword had been run through you every time the fish was 
forgotten, or was too late ? Once, to a dead cartainty, about 
these very tongues and sounds.” 

“ But the weather ? ” interrupted Mr. Sharp. 

“ The weather, my dear sir ; the weather, my dear ladies, 
is very good weather, with the exception of winds and waves, of 
which unfortunately there are, just now, more of both than we 
want. The ship must scud, and as we go like a racehorse, without 
stopping to take breath, we may see the Canary Islands before 
the voyage is over. Of danger there is none in this ship, as long 
as we can keep clear of the land, and in order that this may 
be done, I will just step into my stateroom, and find out ex- 
actly where we are.” 

On receiving this information, the passengers retired for the 
night, Captain Truck setting about his task in good earnest. 
The result of his calculations showed that they would run west- 
ward of Madeira, which was all he cared about immediately, 
intending always to haul up to his course on the first good 
occasion. 


HOMEWARD BOUND 


131 


CHAPTER XIII. 


There are yet two things in my destiny — 

A world to roam o’er, and a home with thee. 

Byron. 

> Eve Effingham slept little : although the motion of the 
ship had been much more severe and uncomfortable while con- 
tending with head-winds, on no other occasion were there so 
many signs of a fierce contention of the elements as in this gale. 
As she lay in her berth, her ear was within a foot of the roar- 
ing waters without, and her frame trembled as she heard them 
gurgling so distinctly, that it seemed as if they had already 
forced their way through the seams of the planks, and were 
filling the ship. Sleep she could not, for a long time, there- 
fore, and during two hours she remained with closed eyes, an 
entranced and yet startled listener to the fearful strife that 
was raging over the ocean. Night had no stillness, for the 
roar of the winds and waters was incessant, though deadened 
by the intervening decks and sides ; but now and then an open 
door admitted, as it might be, the whole scene into the cabins. 
At such moments every sound was fresh, and frightfully grand, 
— even the shout of the officer coming to the ear like a warning 
cry from the deep. 

At length Eve, wearied by her apprehensions even, fell into a 
troubled sleep, in which her frightened faculties, however, kept 
so much on the alert, that at no time was the roar of the tempest 
entirely lost to her sense of hearing. About midnight the 
glare of a candle crossed her eyes, and she was broad awake 
in an instant. On rising in her berth she found Nanny Sidley, 
who had so often and so long watched over her infant and 
childish slumbers, standing at her side, and gazing wistfully in 
her face. 

“ ’Tis a dread night, Miss Eve,” half whispered the appalled 
domestic. “ I have not been able to sleep for thinking of you, 
and of what might happen on these wide waters ! ” 

' “ And why of me particularly, my good Nanny ? ” returned 
Eve, smiling in the face of her old nurse as sweetly as the in- 
fant smiles in its moments of tenderness and recollection. 
“ Why so much of me, my excellent Ann ? — are there not 
others too, worthy of your care ? my beloved father — your own 


152 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


good self — Mademoiselle Viefville — cousin Jack — and — ” the 
warm color deepened on the cheek of the beautiful girl, she 
scarcely knew why herself — “ and many others in the vessel, 
that one, kind as you, might think of, I should hope, when your 
thoughts become apprehensions, and your wishes prayers.” 

“ There are many precious souls in the ship, ma’am, out of 
all question ; and I’m sure no one wishes them all safe on land 
again more than myself ; but it seems to me, no one among 
them all is so much loved as you.” 

Eve leaned forward playfully, and drawing her old nurse 
towards her, kissed her cheek, while her own eyes glistened, 
and then she laid her flushed cheek on that bosom which had 
so frequently been its pillow before. After remaining a minute 
in this affectionate attitude, she rose and inquired if her nur$e 
had been on deck. 

“ I go every half-hour, Miss Eve ; for I feel it as much my 
duty to watch over you here, as when I had you all to myself 
in the cradle. I do not think your father sleeps a great deal 
to-night, and several of the gentlemen in the other cabins, 
remain dressed ; they ask me how you spend the time in this 
tempest, whenever I pass their stateroom doors.” 

Eve’s color deepened, and Ann Sidley thought she had 
never seen her child more beautiful, as the bright luxuriant 
golden hair, which had strayed from the comfinement of the 
cap, fell on the warm cheek, and rendered eyes that were always 
full of feeling, softer and more brilliant even than common. 

“ They conceal their uneasiness for themselves under an 
alfected concern for me, my good Nanny,” she said hurriedly; 
“ and your own affection makes you an easy dupe to the arti- 
fice.” 

u It may be so ma’am, for I know but little of the v^ays of 
the world. It is fearful, is it not, Miss Eve, to think that we 
are in a ship, so far from any land, whirling along over the 
bottom as fast as a horse could plunge ? ” 

“ The danger is not exactly of that nature, perhaps, 
Nanny.” 

“ There is a bottom to the ocean, is there not ? I have 
heard some maintain there is no bottom to the sea — and that 
would make the danger so much greater. I think, if I felt 
certain that the bottom was not very deep, and there was only 
a rock to be seen now and then, I should not find it so very 
dreadful.” 

Eve laughed like a child, and the contrast between the sweet 
simplicity of her looks, her manners, and her more cultivated 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


133 

intellect, and the matronly appearance of the less instructed 
Ann, made one of those pictures in which the superiority of 
mind over all other things becomes most apparent. 

“ Your notions of safety, my dear Nanny,” she said, “ are 
not precisely those of a seaman ; for I believe there is nothing 
of which they stand more in dread than of rocks and the 
bottom.” 

“ I fear I’m but a poor sailor, ma’am, for in my judgment 
we could have no greater consolation in such a tempest than 
to see them all around us.. Do you think, Miss Eve, that the 
bottom of the ocean, if there is truly a bottom, is whitened 
with the bones of shipwrecked mariners, as people say ? ” 

“ I doubt not, my excellent Nanny, that the great deep 
might give up many awful secrets ; but you ought to think less 
of these things, and more of that merciful Providence which 
has protected us through so many dangers since we have been 
wanderers. You are in much less danger now than I have 
known you to be, and escaped unharmed.” 

“ I ! Miss Eve ! — Do you suppose that I fear for myself ? 
What matters it if a poor old woman like me die a few years 
sooner or later or where her frail old body is laid ? I have 
never been of so much account when living as to make it of 
consequence where the little which will remain to decay when 
dead moulders into dust. Do not, I implore you, Miss Effing- 
ham, suppose me so selfish as to feel any uneasiness to-night on 
my own account.” 

“ Is it then, as usual, all for me, my dear, my worthy old 
nurse, that you feel this anxiety ? Put your heart at ease, for 
they who know best betray no alarm ; and you may observe that 
the captain sleeps as tranquil this night as on any other.” 

“ But he is a rude man, and accustomed to danger. He has 
neither wife nor children, and I’ll engage has never given a 
thought to the horrors of having a form precious as this floating 
in the caverns of the ocean, amidst ravenous fish and sea- 
monsters.” 

Here her imagination overcame poor Nanny Sidley, and 
she folded her arms about the beautiful person of Eve, and 
sobbed violently. Her young mistress, accustomed to similar 
exhibitions of affection, soothed her with blandishments and 
assurances that soon restored her self-command, when the dia- 
logue was resumed with a greater appearance of tranquillity on 
the part of the nurse. They conversed a few minutes on the 
subject of their reliance on God, Eve returning fourfold, or with 
the advantages of a cultured intellect, many of those simple 


134 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


lessons of faith and humanity that she had received from her 
companion when a child ; the latter listening, as she always did, 
to these exhortations, which sounded in her ears, like the echoes 
of all her own better thoughts, with a love and reverence no 
other could awaken. Eve passed her small white hand over 
the wrinkled cheek of Nanny in kind fondling, as it had been 
passed a thousand times when a child, an act she well knew 
her nurse delighted in, and continued, — 

“ And now, my good old Nanny, you will set your heart at 
ease, I know ; for though a little too apt to trouble yourself 
about one who does not deserve half your care, you are much 
too sensible and too humble to feel distrust out of reason. 
We will talk of something else a few minutes, and then you will 
lie down and rest your weary body.” 

“ Weary ! I should never feel weary in watching, when I 
thought there was a cause for it.” 

Although Nanny made no allusion to herself, Eve under- 
stood in whose behalf this watchfulness was meant. She drew 
the face of the old woman towards her, and left a kiss on each 
cheek ere she continued, — 

“ These ships have other things to talk about, besides their 
dangers,” she said. “ Do you not find it odd, at least, that a 
vessel of war should be sent to follow us about the ocean in 
this extraordinary way ?” 

“ Quite so, ma’am, and I did intend to speak to you about 
it, some time when I saw you had nothing better to think of. 
At first I fancied, but I believe it was a silly thought, that some 
of the great English lords and admirals that used to be so 
much about us at Paris, and Rome and Vienna, had sent this ship 
to see you safe to America, Miss Eve ; for I never supposed they 
would make so much fuss concerning a poor runaway couple, 
like these steerage-passengers.” 

Eve did not refrain from laughing again, at this conceit of 
Nanny’s, for her temperament was gay as childhood, though 
well restrained by cultivation and manner, and once more she 
patted the cheek of her nurse kindly. 

“ Those great lords and admirals are not- great enough for 
that, dear Nanny, even had they the inclination to do so silly 
a thing. But has no other reason suggested itself to you, 
among the many curious circumstances you may have had occa- 
sion to observe in the ship ? ” 

Nanny looked at Eve, and turned her eyes aside, glanced 
furtively at the young lady again, and at last felt compelled to 
answer. 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


*35 

“ I endeavor, ma’am, to think well of everybody, though 
strange thoughts will sometimes arise without our wishing it. 
I suppose I know to what you allude ; but I don’t feel quite 
certain it becomes me to speak.” 

“ With me at least, Nanny, you need have no reserves, and 
I confess a desire to learn if we have thought alike about some 
of our fellow-passengers. Speak freely, then ; for you can have 
no more apprehension in communicating all your thoughts to 
me than in communicating them to your own child.” 

“ Not as much, ma’am, not half as much ; for you are both 
child and mistress to me, and I look quite as much to receiv- 
ing advice as to giving it. It is odd, Miss Eve, that gentlemen 
should not pass under their proper names, and I have had un- 
pleasant feelings about it, though I did not think it became me 
to be the first to speak, while your father was with you, and 
mamerzelle,” for so Nanny always styled the governess, “ and 
Mr. John, all of whom love you almost as much as I do, and 
all of whom are so much better judges of what is right. But 
now you encourage me to speak my mind, Miss Eve, I will say I 
should like th«t no one came near you who does not carry his 
heart in his open hand, that the youngest child might know 
his character and understand his motives.” 

Eve smiled as her nurse grew warm, but she blushed in 
spite of an effort to seem indifferent. 

“ This would be truly a vain wish, dear Nanny, in the mixed 
company of a ship,” she said. “ It is too much to expect that 
strangers will throw aside all their reserves, on first finding 
themselves in close communion. The well-bred and prudent 
will only stand more on their guard under such circumstances.” 

“ Strangers, ma’am ! ” 

“ I perceive that you recollect the face of one of our ship- 
mates. Why do you shake your head ? ” The telltale blood of 
Eve again mantled over her lovely countenance. “ I suppose I 
ought to have said two of our shipmates, though I had doubted 
whether you retained any recollection of one of them.” 

“ No gentleman ever speaks to you twice, Miss Eve, that 
I do not remember him.” 

“ Thank you, dearest Nanny, for this and a thousand other 
proofs of your never-ceasing interest in my welfare ; but I had 
not believed you so vigilant as to take heed of ever}" face 
that happens to approach me.” 

“ Ah, Miss Eve ! neither of these gentleman would like 
to be mentioned by you in this careless manner, I’m sure. 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


136 

They both did a great deal more than ‘ happen to approach 
you ; for as to — ” 

“Hist! dear Nanny; we are in a crowded place, and you 
may be overheard. You will use no names, therefore, as I 
believe we understand each other without going into all these 
particulars. Now, my dear nurse, would I give something to 
know which of these young men has made the most favorable 
impression on your upright and conscientious mind ” 

“ Nay, Miss Eve, what is my judgment in comparison with 
your own, and that of Mr. John Effingham, and ” 

“ — My cousin Jack! In the name of wonder, Nanny, 
what has he to do with the matter ? ” 

“ Nothing, ma’am ; only I can see he has his favorites as 
well as another, and I’ll venture to say Mr. Dodge is not the 
greatest he has in this ship.” 

“ I think you might add Sir George Templemore, too,” re- 
turned Eve, laughing. 

Ann Sidley looked hard at her young mistress, and smiled 
before she answered ; and then she continued the discourse 
naturally, as if there had been no interruption. 

“ Quite likely, ma’am ; and Mr. Monday, and all the rest of 
that set. But you see how soon he discovers a real gentleman ; 
for he is quite easy and friendly with Mr. Sharp and Mr. Blunt, 
particularly the last.” 

Eve was silent, for she did hot like the open introduction of 
these names, though she scarce knew why herself. 

“ My cousin is a man of the world,” she resumed, on per- 
ceiving that Nanny watched her countenance with solicitude, 
as if fearful of having gone too far ; “ and there is nothing sur- 
prising in his discovering men of his own class. We know 
both these persons to be not exactly what they seem, though I 
think we know no harm of either, unless it be the silly change 
of names. It would have been better had they come on board, 
bearing their proper appellations ; to us, at least, it would have 
been more respectful, though both affirm they were ignorant 
that my father had taken passage in the Montauk, — a circum- 
stance that may very well be true, as you know we got the 
cabin that was first engaged by another party.” 

“ I should be sorry, ma’am, if either failed in respect.” 

“ It is not quite adulatory to make a young woman the in- 
voluntary keeper of the secrets of two unreflecting young men ; 
that is all, my good Nanny. We cannot well betray them, and 
we are consequently their confidants par fotce. The most 
amusing part of the thing is, that they are masters of each 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


*37 


other’s secrets, in part at least, and feel a delightful awkward- 
ness in a hundred instances. For my own part I pity neither, 
but think each is fairly enough punished. They will be fortu- 
nate if their servants do not betray them before we reach New 
York.” 

“ No fear of that, ma’am, for they are discreet, cautious 
men, and if disposed to blab, Mr. Dodge has given both good 
opportunities already, as I believe he has put to them as many 
questions as there are speeches in the catechism.” 

“ Mr. Dodge is a vulgar man.” 

“ So we all say, ma’am, in the servant’s cabin, and every- 
body is so set against him there, that there is little chance of 
his learning much. I hope, Miss Eve, mamerzelle does not 
distrust either of the gentlemen ? ” 

“ Surely you cannot suspect Mademoiselle Viefville of indis- 
cretion, Nanny; abetter spirit, or abetter tone than hers, does 
not exist.” 

“ No, ma’am, ’tis not that ; but I should like to have one 
more secret with you, all to myself. I honor and respect 
mamerzelle, who has done a thousand times more for you than 
a poor ignorant woman like me could have done, with all my 
zeal ; but I do believe, Miss Eve, I love your shoe tie better 
than she loves your pure and beautiful spirit.” 

“ Mademoiselle Viefville is an excellent woman, and I be- 
lieve is sincerely attached to me.” . 

“ She would be a wretch else. I do’ not deny her attach- 
ment, but I only say it is nothing, it ought to be nothing, it can 
be nothing, it shall be nothing, compared to that of the one 
who first held you in her arms, and who has always held you in 
her heart. Mamerzelle can sleep such a night as this, which 
I’m sure she could not do were she as much concerned for you 
as I am.” 

Eve knew that jealousy of Mademoiselle Viefville was 
Nanny’s greatest weakness, and drawing the old woman to her, 
she entwined her arms around her neck and complained of f 
drowsiness. Accustomed to watching, and really unable to 
sleep, the nurse now passed a perfectly happy hour in holding 
her child, who literally dropped asleep on her bosom ; after 
which Nanny slid into the berth beneath, in her clothes, and 
finally lost the sense of her apprehensions in perturbed slum- 
bers. 

A cry on deck awoke all in the cabins early on the succeed- 
ing morning. It was scarcely light, but a common excitement 
seized every passenger, and ten minutes had not elapsed when 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


138 

Eve and her governess appeared in the hurricane-house, the 
last of those who came from below. Few questions had been 
asked, but all hurried on deck with their apprehensions, awak- 
ened by the gale, increased to the sense of some positive and 
impending danger. 

Nothing, however, was immediately apparent to justify all 
this sudden clamor. The gale continued, if anything, with in- 
creased power; the ocean w r as rolling over its cataracts of 
combing seas, with which the ship was still racing, driven under 
the strain of a reefed forecourse, the only canvas that w r as set. 
Even with this little sail the hull was glancing through the 
raging seas, or rather in their company, at a rate a little short 
of ten miles in the hour. 

Captain Truck was in the mizzen-rigging, bareheaded, every 
lock of hair he had blowing out like a pennant. Occasionally 
he signed to the man at the wheel which way to put the helm ; 
for instead of sleeping, .as many had supposed, he had been 
conning the ship four hours in the same situation. As Eve 
appeared, he was directing the attention of several of the gen- 
tlemen to some object astern, but a very few moments put all 
on deck in possession of the facts. 

About a cable’s length, on one of the quarters of the Mon- 
tauk, was a ship careering before the gale like themselves, though 
carrying more canvas, and consequently driving faster through 
the water. The sudden appearance of the vessel in the sombre 
light of the morning, when objects were seen distinctly but 
without the glare of day ; the dark hull, relieved by a single 
narrow line of white paint, dotted with ports ; the glossy ham- 
mock-cloth, and all those other coverings of dark glistening 
canvas which give to a cruiser an air of finish and comfort, like 
that of a travelling carriage : the symmetry of the spars, and 
the gracefulness of all the lines, whether of the hull or hamper, 
told all who knew anything of such subjects, that the stranger 
was a vessel of war. To this information Captain Truck added 
that it was their old pursuer the Foam. 

“ She is. corvette-built,” said the master of the Montauk, 
“ and is obliged to carry more canvas than we, in order to 
keep out of the way of the seas ; for, if one of those big fellows 
should overtake her, and throw its crest into her waist, she 
would become like a man who has taken too much Saturday- 
night, and with whom a second dose might settle the purser’s 
books forever.” 

Such, in fact, was the history of the sudden appearance of 
this ship. She had lain-to as long as possible, and on being driven 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


*39 


to scud, carried a close-reefed maintop-sail, a show of canvas 
that urged her through the water about two knots to the hour 
faster than the rate of the packet. Necessarily following the 
same course, she overtook the latter just as the day began to 
dawn. The cry had arisen on her sudden discovery, and the 
moment had now arrived when she was about to come up, 
quite abreast of her late chase. The passage of the Foam, 
under such circumstances, was a grand but thrilling thing. 
Her captain, too, was seen in the mizzen-rigging of his ship, 
rocked by the gigantic billows over which the fabric was career- 
ing. He held a speaking-trumpet in his hand, as if still bent 
on his duty, in the midst of that awful warring of the elements. 
Captain Truck called for a trumpet in his turn, and fearful of 
consequences he waved it to the other to. keep more aloof. 
The injunction was either misunderstood, the man-of-wars’s 
man was too much bent on his object, or the ocean was too 
uncontrollable for such a purpose, the corvette driving up on a 
sea quite abeam of the packet, and in fearful proximity. The 
Englishman applied the trumpet, and words were heard amid 
the roaring of the winds. At that time the white field of old 
Albion, with the St. George’s cross, rose over the bulwarks, and 
by the time it had reached the gaff-end, the bunting was whip- 
ping in ribbons. 

“ Show ’em the gridiron ! ” growled Captain Truck through 
his trumpet, with its mouth turned in board. 

As everything was ready this order was instantly obeyed, 
and the stripes of America were soon seen fluttering nearly in 
separate pieces. The two ships now ran a short distance in 
parallel lines rolling from each other so heavily that the 
bright copper of the corvette was seen nearly to her keel. 
The Englishman, who seemed a portion of his ship, again tried 
his trumpet ; the detached words of “ lie-by,”— “ orders,”— 
“ communicate,” were caught by one or two, but the howling 
of the gale rendered all connection in the meaning impossible. 
The Englishman ceased his efforts to make himself heard, 
for the two ships were now rolling-to, and it appeared as if 
their spars would interlock. There was an instant when Mr. 
Leach had his hand on the main brace to let it go ; but the 
Foam started away on a sea, like a horse that feels the spur, 
and disobeying her helm, shot forward, as if about to cross the 
Montauk’s forefoot. 

A breathless instant followed, for all on board the two ships 
thought they must now inevitably come foul of each other, and 
this the more so, because the Montauk took the impulse of the 


140 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


sea just as it was lost to the Foam, and seemed on the point of 
plunging directly into the stern of the latter. Even the seamen 
clenched the ropes around them convulsively, and the boldest 
held their breaths for a time. The “ p-o-r-t, hard a port, and 

be d d to you !” of Captain Truck ; and the “ S-t-a-r-b-o-a-r-d, 

starboard hard ! ” of the Englishman, were both distinctly 
audible to all in the two ships ; for this was a moment in which 
seamen can speak louder than the tempest. The affrighted 
vessels seemed to recede together, and they shot asunder in 
diverging lines, the Foam leading. All further attempts at a 
communication were instantly useless ; the corvette being half a 
mile ahead in a quarter of an hour, rolling her yard-arms nearly 
to the water. 

Captain Truck said little to his passengers concerning this 
adventure ; but when he had lighted a cigar, and was discuss- 
ing the matter with his chief-mate, he told the latter there was 
“ just one minute when he would not have given a ship’s bis- 
cuit for both vessels, nor much more for their cargoes. A man 
must have a small regard for human souls, when he puts them, 
and their bodies too, in. so much jeopardy for a little tobacco.” 

Throughout the day it blew furiously, for the ship was 
running into the gale, a phenomenon that we shall explain, as 
most of our readers may not comprehend it. All gales of 
wind commence to leeward ; or, in other words, the wind is 
first felt at some particular point, and later, as we recede from 
that point, proceeding in the direction from which the wind 
blows. It is always severest near the point where it com- 
mences, appearing to diminish in violence as it recedes. This, 
therefore, is an additional motive for mariners to lie-to, instead 
of scudding, since the latter not only carries them far from 
their true course, but it carries them also nearer to the scene 
of the greatest fury of the elements. 


CHAPTER. XIV. 

Good boatswain, have care. 

Tempest. 

At sunset, the speck presented by the reefed topsail of 
the corvette had sunk beneath the horizon, in the southern 
board, and that ship was seen no longer. Several islands 
had been passed, looking tranquil and smiling amid the fury 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


141 

of the tempest ; but it was impossible to haul up for any one 
among them. The most that could be clone was to keep the 
ship dead before it, to prevent her broaching-to, and to have a 
care that she kept clear of those rocks and of that bottom, for 
which Nanny Sidley had so much pined. 

Familiarity with the scene began to lessen the apprehen- 
sions of the passengers, and as scudding is an easy process for 
those who are liable to sea-sickness, ere another night shut in, 
the principal concern was connected with the course the ship 
was compelled to steer. The wind had so far hauled to the 
westward as to render it certain that the coast of Africa would 
lie in their way, if obliged to scud many hours longer ; for 
Captain Truck’s observations actually placed him to the south- 
ward and eastward of the Canary Islands. This was a long 
distance out of his course, but the rate of sailing rendered the 
fact sufficiently clear. 

This, too, was the precise time when the Montauk felt the 
weight of the tempest, or rather, when she experienced the 
heaviest portion of that which it was her fate to feel. Lucky 
was it for the good- ship that she had not been in this lati- 
tude a few hours earlier, when it had blown something very 
like a hurricane. The responsibility and danger of his situa- 
tion now began seriously to disturb Captain Truck, although 
he kept his apprehensions to himself, like a prudent officer. 
All his calculations were gone over again with the utmost care, 
the rate of sailing was cautiously estimated, and the result 
showed, that ten or fifteen hours more would inevitably produce 
shipwreck of another sort, unless the wind moderated. 

Fortunately, the gale began to break about midnight. The 
wind still blew tremendously, but it was less steadily, and there 
were intervals of half an hour at a time when the ship might 
have carried much more canvas, even on a bowline : of course 
her speed abated in proportion, and, after the day had dawned, 
a long and anxious survey from aloft showed no land to the 
eastward. When perfectly assured of this important fact, Cap- 
tain Truck rubbed his hands with delight, ordered a coal for 
his cigar, and began to abuse Saunders about the quality of the 
coffee during the blow. 

“ Let there be something creditable, this morning, sir,” . 
added the captain, after a sharp rebuke ; “ and remember we 
are down here in the neighborhood of the country of your fore- 
fathers, where a man ought, in reason, to be on his good be- 
havior. If I hear any more of your washy compounds, I’ll put 


142 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


you ashore, and let you run naked a summer or two with th^ 
monkeys and ouran-outangs.” 

“ I endeavor, on all proper occasions, to render myself 
agreeable to you, Captain Truck, and to all those with whom 
I have the happiness to sail,” returned the steward “but the 
coffee, sir, cannot be very good, sir, in such weather, sir. I do 
diwine that the wind must blow away its flavor, for I am ready 
to confess it has not been as odorous as it usually is, when I 
have had the honor to prepare it. As for Africa, sir, I flatter 
myself, Captain Truck, that you esteem me too highly to be- 
lieve I am suited to consort or resort with the .ill-formed and 
medicated men who inhabit that wild country. I misremember 
whether my ancestors came from this part of the world or not ; 
but if they did, sir, my habits and profession entirely unqualify 
me for their company, I hope. I know I am only a poor 
steward, sir, but you’ll please to recollect that your great Mr. 
Vattel was nothing but a cook.” 

“ D — n the fellow, Leach ; I believe it is this conceit that 
has spoiled the coffee, the last day or two ! Do you suppose it 
can be true that a great writer like this man could really be no 
better than a cook, or was that Englishman roasting me, 
by way of showing how cooking is done ashore ? If it 
were not for the testimony of the ladies, I might believe 
it ; but they would not share in such an indecent trick. What 
are you lying-by for, sir? go to your pantry, and remember that 
the gale is broken, and we shall all sit down to table this morn- 
ing, as keen-set as a party of your brethren ashore here, who 
had a broiled baby for breakfast.” 

Saunders, who ex-officio might be said to be trained in simi- 
lar lectures, went pouting to his work, taking care to expend a 
proper part of his spleen on Mr. Toast, who, quite as a matter 
of course, suffered in proportion as his superior was made to 
feel, in his own person, the weight of Captain Truck’s authority. 
It is perhaps fortunate that nature points out this easy and 
self-evident mode of relief, else would the rude habits of a ship 
sometimes render the relations between him who orders and 
him whose duty it is to obey, too nearly approaching to the 
intolerable. 

The captain’s squalls, however, were of short duration, and 
on the present occasion he was soon in even a better humor 
than common, as every minute gave the cheering assurance, 
that the tempest was fast drawing to a close. He had finished 
his third cigar, and was actually issuing his orders. to turn the 
reef out of the foresail, and to set the main-topsail close-reefed, 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


143 

when most of the passengers appeared on deck, for the first 
time that morning. 

“Here we are, gentlemen ! ” cried Captain Truck, in the 
way of salutation, “ nearer to Guinea than I could wish, with 
every prospect, now, of soon working our way across the At- 
lantic, and possibly of making a thirty or thirty-five days’ pas- 
sage of it yet. We have this sea to quiet ; and then I hope to 
show you what the Montauk has in her, besides her passengers 
and cargo. I think we have now got rid of the Foam, as well 
as of the gale. I did believe, at one time, her people might be 
walking and wading on the coast of Cornwall : but I now be- 
lieve they are more likely to try the sands of the great Desert 
of Sahara.” 

“ It is to to be hoped they have escaped the latter calamity, 
as fortunately as they escaped the first ! ” observed Mr. Effing- 
ham. 

“ It may be so ; but the wind has got round to nor’west, 
and has not been sighing these last twelve hours. Cape Blanco 
is not a hundred leagues from us, and, at the rate he was trav- 
elling, that gentleman with the speaking-trumpet may now be 
philosophizing over the fragments of his ship, unless he had the 
good sense to haul off more to the westward than he was steer- 
ing when last seen. His ship should have been christened the 
* Scud,’ instead of the ‘ Foam.’ ” 

Every one expressed the hope that the ship, to which their 
own situation was fairly enough to be "ascribed, might escape 
this calamity ; and all faces regained their cheerfulness as they 
saw the canvas fall, in sign that their own danger was past. 
So rapidly, indeed, did the gale now abate, that the topsails 
were hardly hoisted before the order was given to shake out 
another reef, and within an hour all the heavier canvas that 
was proper to carry before the wind was set, solely with a view 
to keep the ship steady. The sea was still fearful, and Captain 
Truck found himself obliged to keep off from his course, in 
order to avoid the danger of having his decks swept. 

The racing with the crest of the waves, however, was quite 
done, for the seas soon cease to comb and break, after the force 
of the wind is expended. 

At no time is the motion of the vessel more unpleasant, or, 
indeed, more dangerous, than in the interval that occurs be- 
tween the ceasing of a violent gale, and the springing up of a 
new wind. The ship is unmanageable, and falling into the 
troughs of the sea, the waves break in upon her decks, often 
doing serious injury, while the spars and riggings are put to the 


144 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


severest trial by the sudden and violent surges which they have 
to withstand. Of all this Captain Truck w'as fully aware, and 
when he was summoned to breakfast he gave many cautions to 
Mr. Leach before quitting the deck. 

“ I do not like the new shrouds we got up in London,” he 
said, “for the rope has stretched in this gale in a way to throw 
too much strain on the old rigging ; so see all ready for taking 
a fresh drag on them, as soon as the people have breakfasted. 
Mind and keep her out of the trough, sir, and watch every roller 
that you find comes tumbling upon us.” 

After repeating these injunctions in different ways, looking 
to windward some time, and aloft five or six minutes, Captain 
Truck finally went below, to pass judgment on Mr. Saunders’ 
coffee. Once in his throne, at the head of the long table, the 
worthy master, after a proper attention to his passengers, set 
about the duty of restoration, as the steward affectedly called 
eating, with a zeal that never failed him on such occasions. He 
had just swallowed a cup of the coffee, about which he had 
lectured Saunders, when a heavy flap of the sails announced the 
sudden failure of the wind. 

“ That is bad news,” said Captain Truck, listening to the 
fluttering blows of the canvas against the masts. “ I never 
like to hear a ship shaking its wings while there is a heavy sea 
on ; but this is better than the Desert of Sahara, and so, my 
dear young lady, let me recommend to you a cup of this coffee, 
which is flavored this morning by a dread of ouran-outangs, as 
Mr. Saunders will have the honor to inform you ” 

A jerk of the whole ship was followed by a report like that 
made by a musket. Captain Truck rose, and stood leaning on 
one hand in a bent attitude, expectation and distrust intensely 
portrayed in every feature. Another helpless roll of the ship 
succeeded, and three or four similar reports were immediately 
heard, as if large ropes had parted in quick succession. A 
rending of wood followed, and then came a chaotic crash, in 
which the impending heavens seemed to fall on the devoted 
ship. Most of the passengers shut their eyes, and when they 
were opened again, or a moment afterwards, Mr. Truck had 
vanished. 

“It is scarcely necessary to describe the confusion that 
followed. Eve was frightened, but she behaved well, though 
Mademoiselle Viefville trembled so much as to require the 
assistance of Mr. Effingham. 

“ We have lost our masts,” John Effingham caolly remarked ; 
“ an accident that will not be likely to be very dangerous, though 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


*45 

by prolonging the passage a month or two, it may have the 
merit of making this good company more intimately acquainted 
with each other, a pleasure for which we cannot express too 
much gratitude.” 

Eve implored his forbearance by a glance, for she saw his 
eye was unconsciously directed towards Mr. Monday and Mr. 
Dodge, for both of whom she knew her kinsman entertained an 
incurable dislike. His words, however, explained the catas- 
trophe, and most of the men hastened on deck to assure them- 
selves of the fact. 

John Effingham was right. The new rigging which had 
stretched so much during the gale, had permitted too much of 
the strain, in the tremendous rolls of the ship, to fall upon the 
other ropes. The. shroud most exposed had parted first ; three 
or four more followed in succession, and before there was time 
to secure anything, the remainder had gone together, and the 
mainmast had broken at a place where a defect was now seen 
in its heart. Falling over the side, the latter had brought down 
with it the mizzen-mast and all its hamper, and as much of the 
foremast as stood above the top. In short, of all the com- 
plicated tracery of ropes, the proud display of spars, and the 
broad folds of canvas that had so lately overshadowed the deck 
of the Montauk, the multilated foremast, the foreyard and 
sail, and the fallen headgear alone remained. All the rest 
either cumbered the deck, or was beating against the side 
of the ship, in the water. 

The hard, red, weatherbeaten face of Captain Truck was 
expressive of mortification and concern, for a single instant, 
when his eye glanced over the ruin we have just described. 
His mind then seemed made up to the calamity, and he ordered 
Toast to bring him a coal of fire, with which he quietly lighted 
a cigar. 

“ Here is a category, and be d — d to it, Mr. Leach,” he 
said, after taking a single whiff. “ You are doing quite right, 
sir ; cut away the wreck and force the ship free of it, or we 
shall have some of those sticks poking themselves through the 
planks. I always thought the chandler in London, into whose 

hands the agent has fallen, was a rogue, and now I know 

it well enough to swear to it. Cut away, carpenter, and get us 
rid of all this thumping as soon as possible. A very capital 
vessel, Mr. Monday, or she would have rolled the pumps out 
of her, and capsized the galley.” 

No attempt being made to save anything, the wreck tvas float- 
ing astern in five minutes, and the ship was fortunately extri- 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


146 

cated from this new hazard. Mr. Truck, in spite of his acquired 
coolness, looked piteously at all that gallant hamper, in which 
he had so lately rejoiced, as yardarm, crosstrees, tressel-trees, 
and tops rose on the summits of swells or settled in the troughs, 
like whales playing their gambols. But habit is a seaman’s 
philosophy, and in no one feature is his character more re- 
spectable than in that manliness which disinclines him to mourn 
over a misfortune that is inevitable. 

The Montauk now resembled a tree stripped of its branches, 
or a courser crippled in his sinews ; her glory had, in a great 
degree, departed. The foremast alone remained, and of 
this even the head was gone, a circumstance of which Captain 
Truck complained more than of any other, as to use his own 
expressions, “ it destroyed the symmetry of the spar, which had 
proved itself to be a good stick.” What, however, was of more 
real importance, it rendered it difficult, if not impossible, to 
get up a spare topmast forward. As both the main and mizzen- 
mast had gone quite near the deck, this was almost the only 
tolerably easy expedient that remained; and, within an hour 
of the accident, Mr. Truck announced his intention to stand as 
far south as he could to strike the trades, and then to make a 
fair wind of it across the Atlantic, unless, indeed, he might be 
able to fetch into the Cape de Verde Islands, where it woul«L be 
possible, perhaps, to get something like a new outfit. 

“ All I now ask, my dear young lady,” he said to Eve, who 
ventured on deck to look at the desolation, as soon as the 
wreck was cut adrift, “ all I now ask, my dear young lady, is ^ 
an end to westerly winds for two or three weeks, and I will 
promise to place you all in America yet, in time to eat your 
Chistmas dinner. I do not think Sir George will shoot many 
white bears among the Rocky Mountains this year, but then 
there will be so many more left for another season. The ship 
is in a category, and he will be an impudent scoundrel who 
denies it ; but worse categories than this have been reasoned 
out of countenance. All headsail is not a convenient show of ' 
cloth to claw off a leeshore with ; but I still hope to escape ' 
the misfortune of laying eyes on the coast of Africa.” 

“ Are we far from it ? ” asked Eve, who sufficiently under- 
stood the danger of being on an uninhabitable shore in their 
present situation ; one in which it was vain to seek for a port. 

“ I would rather be in the neighborhood of any other land, I 
think, than that of Africa.” 

“ Especially Africa between the Canaries and Cape Blanco,” 
returned Captain Truck, with an expressive shrug. “ More 


HOME IV A RD B O C/ND. 


*47 


hospitable regions exist, certainly ; for, if accounts are to be 
credited, the honest people alongshore never get a Christian 
that they do not mount him on a camel, and trot him through 
the sands a thousand miles or so, under a hot sun, with a sort 
of haggis for food, that would go nigh to take away even a 
Scotchman’s appetite.” 

“ And you do not tell us how far we are from this frightful 
land, Mons. le Capitaine ? ” inquired Mademoiselle Viefville. 

“In ten minutes you shall know, ladies, for I am about to 
observe for the longitude. It is a little late, but it may yet be 
done.” 

“ And we may rely on the fidelity of your information ? ” 

“ On the honor of a sailor and a man.” 

The ladies were silent, while Mr. Truck proceeded to get 
the sun and the time. As soon as he had run through his 
calculations, he came to them with a face in which the eye was 
roving, though it was still good-humored and smiling. 

“ And the result ? ” said Eve. 

“Is not quite as flattering as I could, wish. We are ma- 
terially within a degree of the coast ; but, as the wind is gone, 
or nearly so, we may hope to find a shift that will shove us 
farther from the land. And now I have dealt frankly with you, 
let me beg you will keep the secret, for my people will be 
dreaming of Turks, instead of working, if they know the fact.” 

It required no great observation to discover that Captain 
Truck was far from satisfied with the position of his ship. 
Without any after-sail, and almost without the means of mak- 
ing any, it was idle to think of hauling off from the land, more 
especially against the heavy sea that was still rolling in from 
the northwest ; and his present object was to make the Cape 
de Verdes, before reaching which he would be certain to meet 
the trades, and where, of course, there would be some chance 
of repairing damages. His apprehensions would have been 
much less were the ship a degree further west, as the prevailing 
winds in this part of the ocean are from the northward and 
eastward ; but it was no easy matter to force a ship that dis- 
tance under a foresail, the only regular sail that now remained 
in its place. It is true, he had some of the usual expedients 
of seamen at his command, and the people were immediately 
set about them; but, in consequence of the principal . spars 
having gone so near the decks, it became exceedingly difficult 
to rig jury-masts. 

Something must be attempted, however, and the spare 
spars were got out, and all the necessary preparations were 


HOME WARD B 0 UND . 


148 

commenced, in order that they might be put into their places 
and rigged, as well as circumstances would allow. As soon as 
the sea went down, and the steadiness of the ship would per- 
mit, Mr. Leach succeeded in getting up an awkward lower 
studding-sail, and a sort of a staysail forward, and with these 
additions to their canvas, the ship was brought to head south, 
with the wind light at the westward. The sea was greatly 
diminished about noon ; but a mile an hour, for those who had 
so long a road before them, and who were so near a coast that 
was known to be fearfully inhospitable, was a cheerless pro- 
gress, and the cry of “ sail, ho ! ” early in the afternoon, dif- 
fused a general joy in the Montauk. 

The stranger was made to the southward and eastward and 
was standing on a course that must bring her quite near to 
their own track, as the Montauk then headed. The wind was 
so light, however, that Captain Truck gave it as his opinion 
they could not speak until night had set in. 

“ Unless the coast . has brought him up, yonder flaunting 
gentleman, who seems to have had better luck with his light 
canvas than ourselves, must be the Foam,” .he said. “To- 
bacco, or no tobacco, bride or bridegroom, the fellow has us at 
last, and all the consolation that is left is, that we shall be 
much obliged to him, now, if he will carry us to Portsmouth, 
or into any other Christian haven. We have shown him what 
a kettle-bottom can do before the wind, and now let him give 
us a tow to windward like a generous antagonist. That is 
what I call Vattel, my dear young lady.” 

“ If he do this, he will indeed prove himself a generous ad- 
versary,” said Eve, “ and we shall be certain to speak well of 
his humanity, whatever we may think of his obstinacy.” 

“ Are you quite sure the ship in sight is the corvette ? ” 
asked Paul Blunt. 

“ Who else can it be ? — Two vessels are quite sufficient to 
be jammed down here on the coast of Africa, and we know that 
the Englishman must be somewhere to leeward of us ; though, 
I will confess, I had believed him much farther, if not plump 
up among the Mohammedans, beginning to reduce to a feather- 
weight, like Captain Riley, who came out with just his skin and 
bones, after a journey across the desert.” 

“ I do not think those top-gallant-sails have the symmetry 
of the canvas of a ship-of-war.” 

Captain Truck looked steadily at the young man an instant, 
as one regards a sound criticism, and then he turned his eye 
towards the object of which they were speaking. 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


149 

“ You are right, sir,” he rejoined, after a moment of exam- 
ination ; “ and I have had a lesson in my own trade from one 
young enough to be my son. The stranger is clearly no cruiser, 
and as there is no port in-shore of us anywhere near this lati- 
tude, he is probably some trader who has been driven down 
here, like ourselves.” 

“ And I’m very sure, captain,” put in Sir George Temple- 
more, “we ought to rejoice sincerely that, like ourselves, he 
has escaped shipwreck. For my part, I pity the poor wretches 
on board the Foam most sincerely, and could almost wish my- 
self a Catholic, that one might yet offer up sacrifices in their 
behalf.” 

“ You have shown yourself a Christian throughout all that 
affair, Sir George, and I shall not forget your handsome offers 
to befriend the ship, rather than let us fall into the jaws of 
the Philistines. We were in a category more than once, with 
that nimble-footed racer in our wake, and you were the man, 
Sir George, who manifested the most heartv desire to get us 
out.” 

“ I ever feel an interest in the ship in which I embark,” 
returned the gratified baronet, who was not displeased at hear- 
ing his liberality so openly commended ; “and I would cheer- 
fully have given a thousand pounds in preference to being 
taken. I rather think, now, that is the true spirit for a sports- 
man ! ” 

“ Or for an admiral, my good sir. To be frank with you, 
Sir George, when I first had the honor of your acquaintance, 
I did not think you had so much in you. There was a sort of 
English attention to small wares, a species of knee-buckleism 
about your debutt, as Mr. Dodge calls it that made me distrust 
your being the whole-souled and one-idea’d man I find you 
really are.” 

“ Oh ! I do like my comforts,” said Sir George, laughing. 

“ That you do, and I am only surprised you don’t smoke. 
Now, Mr. Dodge, your roommate, there, tells me you have 
six and thirty pair of breeches ! ” 

“ I have — yes, indeed, I have. One would wish to go 
abroad decently clad.” 

“ Well ! if it should be our luck to travel in the deserts, 
your wardrobe would rig out a whole harem.” 

“ I wish, captain, you would do me the favor to step into 
our stateroom, some morning; I have many curious things I 
should like to show you. A set of razors, in particular, — and 
a dressing-case — and a pair of patent pistols — and that life- 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


I 5° 

preserver that yo&* hdmire so much, Mr. Dodge. Mr. Dodge 
has seen most of my curiosities, I believe, and will tell you 
some of them are really worth a moment’s examination.” 

“ Yes, captain, I must say,” observed Mr. Dodge, — for this 
conversation was held apart between the three, the mate keep- 
ing an eye the while on the duty of the ship, for habit had given 
Mr. Truck the faculty of driving his people while he entertained 
his passengers — “ Yes, captain, I must say I have met no gentle- 
man who is better supplied with necessaries, than my friend, 
Sir George. But English gentlemen are curious in such things, 
and I admit that I admire their ingenuity.” 

“ Particularly in breeches, Mr. Dodge. Have you coats to 
match, Sir George ? ” 

“ Certainly, sir. One would be a little absurd in his shirt 
sleeves. I wish, captain, we could make Mr. Dodge a little 
less of a republican. I find him a most agreeable roommate, 
but rather annoying on the subject of kings and princes.” 

“You stick up for the people, Mr. Dodge, or to the old 
category ? ” 

“ On that subject, Sir George and I shall never agree, for he 
is obstinately monarchical ; but I tell him we shall treat him none 
the worse for that, when he gets among us. He has promised 
me a visit in our part of the country, and I have pledged myself 
to his being unqualifiedly well received ; and I think I know 
the whole meaning of a pledge,” 

“ I understand Mr. Dodge,” pursued the baronet, “ that he 
is the editor of a public journal, in which he entertains his 
readers with an account of his adventures and observations 
during his travels. ‘The Active Inquirer , 5 is it not, Mr, 
Dodge ? ” 

“ That is the name, Sir George. ‘ The Active Inquirer 5 is 
the present name, though when we supported Mr. Adams it 
was called ‘The Active Enquirer , 5 with an E.” 

“A distinction without a difference ; I like that,” interrupted 
Captain Truck. “This is the second time I have had the 
honor to sail with Mr. Dodge, and a more active inquirer never 
put foot in a ship, though I did not know the use he put his 
information to before. It is all in the way of trade, I find.” 

“ Mr. Dodge claims to belong to a profession, captain, and 
is quite above trade. He tells me many things have occurred 
on board this ship, since we sailed, that will make very eligible 
paragraphs . 55 

“ The d he does ! — I should like particularly well, Mr. 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


* 5 * 

Dodge, to know what you will find to say concerning this cate- 
gory in which the Montauk is placed.” 

“ Oh ! captain, no fear of me, when you are concerned. 
You know I am a friend, and you have no cause to apprehend 
anything ; though I’ll not answer for everybody else on board ; 
for there are passengers in this ship to whom I have decided 
antipathies, and whose deportment meets with my unqualified 
disapprobation.” 

“ And you intend to paragraph them ? ” 

Mr. Dodge was now swelling with the conceit of a vulgar 
and inflated man, who not only fancies himself in possession of 
a power that others dread, but who was so far blinded to his 
own qualities as to think his opinion of importance to those 
whom he felt, in the minutest fibre of his envious and malig- 
nant system,. to be in every essential his superiors. He did not 
dare express all his rancor, while he was unequal to suppressing 
it entirely. 

“ These Effinghams, and this Mr. Sharp and that Mr. Blunt,” 
he muttered, “ think themselves everybody’s betters ; but we 
shall see !; America is not a country in which people can shut 
themselves up in rooms, and fancy they are lords and ladies.” 

“ Bless my soul ! ” said Captain Truck, with his affected 
simplicity of manner ; “ how did you find this out, Mr. Dodge ? 
What a thing it is, Sir George, to be an active inquirer ! ” 

“ Oh ! I know when a man is blown up with notions of his 
own importance. As for Mr. John Effingham, he has been so 
long abroad that he has forgotten that he is going home to a 
country of equal rights !” 

“ Very true, Mr. Dodge ; a country in which a man cannot 
shut himself up in his room, whenever the notion seizes him. 
This is the spirit, Sir George, to make a great nation, and you 
see that the daughter is likely to prove worthy of the old lady ! 
But, my dear sir, are you quite sure that Mr. John Effingham 
has absolutely so high a sentiment in his own favor. It would 
be awkward business to make a blunder in such a serious matter, 
and murder a paragraph for nothing. You should remember 
the mistake of the Irishman ! ” 

“ What was that ? ” asked the baronet, who was completely 
mystified by the indomitable gravity of Captain Truck, whose 
character might be said to be actually formed by the long habit 
of treating the weaknesses of his fellow creatures with cool 
contempt. “ We hear many good things at our club ; but I do 
not remember the mistake of the Irishman ? ” 


* 5 2 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


“ He merely mistook the drumming in his own ear, for 
some unaccountable noise that disturbed his companions.” 

Mr. Dodge felt uncomfortable ; but there is no one of whom 
a vulgar-minded man stands so much in awe as an immovable 
quiz, who has no scruple in using his power. He shook his 
head, therefore, in a menacing manner, and affecting to have 
something to do he went below, leaving the baronet and the 
captain by themselves. 

“ Mr. Dodge is a stubborn friend of liberty,” said the former, 
when his roommate was out of hearing. 

“ That is he, and you have his own word for it. He has no 
notion of letting a man do as he has a mind to ! We are full 
of such active inquirers in America, and I don’t care how 
many you shoot before you begin upon the white bears, Sir 
George.” 

“ But it would be more gracious in the Effinghams, you must 
allow, captain, if they shut themselves up in their cabin less, 
and admitted us to their society a little oftener. I am quite 
of Mr. Dodge’s way of thinking, that exclusion is excessivly 
odious.” 

“ There is a poor fellow in the steerage, Sir George, to whom 
I have given a piece of canvas to repair a damage to his main- 
sail, who would say the same thing did he know of your six and 
thirtys. Take a cigar, my dear sir, and smoke away sorrow.” 

“ Thankee captain ; I never smoke. We never smoke at 
our club, though some of us go, at times, to the divan to try a 
chibouk.” 

“ We can’t all have cabins to ourselves, or no one would 
live forward. If the Effinghams like their own apartment, I do 
honestly believe it is for a reason as simple as that it is the 
best in the ship. I’ll warrant you, if there were a better, 
that they would be ready enough to change. I suppose when 
we get in, Mr. Dodge will honor you with an article in ‘ The 
Active Inquirer.’ 

“ To own the truth, he has intimated some such thing.” 

“ And why not ? A very instructive paragraph might be 
made about the six and thirty pair of breeches, and the patent 
razors, and the dressing-case, to say nothing of the Rocky 
Mountains, and the white bears.” 

Sir George now began to feel uncomfortable, and making 
a few unmeaning remarks about the late accident, he disap- 
peared. 

Captain Truck, who never smiled except at the corner of 
his left eye, turned away, and began rattling off his people, and 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


53 


throwing in a hint or two to Saunders with as much indifference 
as if he were a firm believer in the unfailing orthodoxy of a 
newspaper, and entertained a profound respect for the editor of 
the ‘ Active Inquirer,’ in particular. 

The prognostic of the master concerning the strange ship 
proved true, for about nine at night she came within hail, and 
backed her maintop-sail. This vessel proved to be an Ameri- 
can in ballast, bound from Gibraltar to New York a return 
store-ship from the squadron kept in the Mediterranean. She 
had met the gale to the westward of Madeira, and after holding on 
as long as possible, had also been compelled to scud. Accord- 
ing to the report of her officers, the Foam had run in much 
closer to the coast than herself, and it was their opinion she 
was lost. Their own escape was owing entirely to the wind’s 
abating, for they had actually been within sight of the land, 
though having received no injury, they had been able to haul off 
in season. 

Luckily, this ship was ballasted with fresh water, and Captain 
Truck passed the night in negotiating a transfer of his steerage 
passengers, under an apprehension that, in the crippled state 
of his own vessel, his supplies might be exhausted before he 
could reach America. In the morning, the offer of being put 
on board the store-ship was made to those who chose to ac- 
cept it, and all in the steerage, with most from the cabin, 
profited by the occasion to exchange a dismasted vessel for one 
that was, at least, full rigged. Provisions were transferred ac- 
cordingly, and by noon next, day the stranger made sail on a 
wind, the sea being tolerably smooth, and the breeze still ahead. 
In three hours she was out of sight to the northward and west- 
ward, the Montauk holding her own dull course to the south- 
ward, with the double view of striking the trades, or of reach- 
ing one of the Cape de Verdes. 


CHAPTER XV. 


Steph . — His forward voice now is to speak well of his friend : his back- 
ward voice is to utter foul speeches, and to detract. 

Tempest. 


The situation of the Montauk appeared more desolate than 
ever, after the departure of so many of her passengers. So 
long as her decks were thronged there was an air of life about 
her, that served to lessen disquietude, but now that she was 


54 


HOMEWARD ROUND. 


left by all in the steerage, and by so many in the cabins, those 
who remained began to entertain livelier apprehensions of the 
future. When the upper sails of the store-ship sunk as a speck 
in the ocean, Mr. Effingham regretted that he, too, had not 
overcome his reluctance to a crowded and inconvenient cabin, 
and gone on board her, with his own party. Thirty years 
before he would have thought himself fortunate in finding so 
good a ship, and accommodations so comfortable ; but habit and 
indulgence change all our opinions, and he had now thought it 
next to impossible to place Eva and Mademoiselle Viefville in 
a situation that was so common to those who travelled by sea 
at the commencement of the century. 

Most of the cabin passengers, as has just been stated, de- 
cided differently, none remaining but the Effinghams and their 
party, Mr. Sharp, Mr. Blunt, Sir George Templemore, Mr. 
Dodge, and Mr. Monday. Mr. Effingham had been influenced 
by the superior comforts of the packet, and his hopes that a 
speedy arrival at the islands would enable the ship to refit, in 
time to reach America almost as soon as the dull-sailing vessel 
which had just left them. Mr. Sharp and Mr. Blunt had both 
expressed a determination to share his fortunes, which was in- 
directly saying that they would share the fortunes of his 
daughter. John Effingham remained, as a matter of course, 
though he had made a proposition to the stranger to tow them 
into port, an arrangement that failed in consequence of the two 
captains disagreeing as to the course proper to be steered, as 
well as to a more serious obstacle in the way of compensation, 
the stranger throwing out some pretty plain hints about salvage, 
and Mr. Monday staying from an inveterate attachment to the 
steward’s stores, more of which, he rightly judged, would now 
fall to his share than formerly. 

Sir George Templemore had gone on board the store-ship, 
and had given some very clear demonstrations of an intention 
to transfer himself and the thirty-six pair of breeches to that 
vessel ; but on examining her comforts, and particularly the 
confined place ip which he should be compelled to stow him- 
self and his numerous curiosities, he was unequal to the 
sacrifice. On the other hand, he knew an entire stateroom 
would now fall to his share, and this self-indulged and feeble- 
minded young man preferred his immediate comfort, and the 
gratification of his besetting weakness, to his safety. 

As for Mr. Dodge, he had the American mania of hurry, and 
was one of the first to propose a general swarming, as soon as 
it was known the stranger could receive them. During the 


HOMEWARD BOUND, 


*55 

night, he had been actively employed in fomenting a party to 
“resolve” that prudence required the Montauk should be 
altogether abandoned, and even after this scheme failed, he 
had dwelt eloquently in corners (Mr. Dodge was too meek, and 
too purely democratic, ever to speak aloud, unless under the 
shadow of public opinion,) on the propriety of Captain Truck’s 
yielding his own judgment to that of the majority. He might 
as well have scolded against the late gale, in the expectation 
of out-railing the tempest, as to make such an attempt on the 
firm-set notions of the old seaman concerning his duty ; for no 
sooner was the thing intimated to him than he growled a denial 
in a tone that he was little accustomed to use to his passengers, 
and one that effectually silenced remonstrance. When these 
two plans had failed, Mr. Dodge endeavored strenuously to 
show Sir George that his interests and safety were on the side 
of a removal ; but with all his eloquence, and with the hold 
that incessant adulation had actually given him on the mind of 
the other, he was unable to overcome his love of ease, and chiefly 
the passion for the enjoyment of the hundred articles of comfort 
and curiosity in which the baronet so much delighted. The 
breeches might have been packed in a trunk, it is true, and so 
might the razors, and the dressing-case, and the pistols, and 
most of the other things ; but Sir George loved to look at them 
daily, and as many as possible were constantly paraded before 
his eyes. 

To the surprise of every one, Mr. Dodge, on finding it im- 
possible to prevail on Sir George Templemore to leave the 
packet, suddenly announced his own intention to remain also. 
Few stopped to inquire into his motives in the hurry of such a 
moment. To his roommate he affirmed that the strong friend- 
ship he had formed for him, could alone induce him to relinquish 
the hope of reaching home previously to the autumn elections. 

Nor did Mr. Dodge greatly color the truth in making this 
statement. He was an American demagogue precisely in 
obedience to those feelings and inclinations which would have 
made him a courtier anywhere else. It is true, he had travelled, 
or thought he had travelled, in a diligence with a countess or two, 
but from these he had been obliged to separate early on account 
of the force of things ; while here he had got a bona-fide English 
baronet all to himself, in a confined stateroom, and his im- 
agination revelled in the glory and gratification of such an 
acquaintance. What were the proud and distant Efiinghams to 
Sir George Templemore ! He even ascribed their reserve with 
the baronet to envy, a passion of whose existence he had very 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


* 5 6 

lively perceptions, and he found a secret charm in being shut 
up -in so small an apartment with a man who could excite envy 
in an Effingham. Rather than abandon his aristocratical prize, 
therefore whom he intended to exhibit to all his democratic 
friends in his own neighborhood, Mr. Dodge determined to 
abandon his beloved hurry, looking for his reward in the future 
pleasure of talking of Sir George Templemore and his curi- 
osities, and of his sayings and his jokes, in the circle at home. 
Odd, moreover, as it may seem, Mr. Dodge had an itching 
desire to remain with the Effinghams ; for while he was permit- 
ting jealousy and a consciousness of inferiority to beget hatred, 
he was willing at any moment to make peace, provided it could 
be done by a frank admission into their intimacy. As to the 
innocent family that was rendered of so much account to the 
happiness of Mr. Dodge, it seldom thought of that individual 
at all, little dreaming of its own importance in his estimation, 
and merely acted in obedience to its own cultivated tastes and 
high principles in disliking his company. It fancied itself, in 
this particular, the master of its own acts, and this so much the 
more, that with the reserve of good-breeding its members seldom 
indulged in censorious personal remarks, and never in gossip. 

As a consequence of these contradictory feelings of Mr. 
Dodge, and of the fastidiousness of Sir George Templemore, 
the interest her two admirers took in Eve, the devotion of Mr. 
Monday to sherry and champagne, and the decision of Mr. 
Effingham, these persons therefore remained the sole occupants 
of the cabins of the Montauk. Of the oi polloi who had left 
them, we have hitherto said nothing, because this separation 
was to remove them entirely from the interest of our incidents. 

If we were to say that Captain Truck did not feel melan- 
choly as the store-ship sunk beneath the horizon, we should rep- 
resent that stout-hearted mariner as more stoical than he 
actually was. In the course of a long and adventurous pro- 
fessional life, he had encountered calamities before, but he had 
never before been compelled to call in assistance to deliver his 
passengers at the stipulated port, since he had commanded a 
packet. H-e felt the necessity, in the present instance as a sort 
of stain upon his character as a seaman, though in fact the = 
accident which had occurred was chiefly to be attributed to a 
concealed defect in the mainmast. The honest master sighed 
often, smoked nearly double the usual number of cigars in the 
course of the afternoon, and when the sun went down glorious- 
ly in the distant west, he stood gazing at the sky in melancholy 
silence, as long as any of the magnificent glory that accompanies 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


1 57 

the decline of day lingered among the vapors of the horizon. 
He then summoned Saunders to the quarter-deck, where the 
following dialogue took place between them, — 

“ This is a devil of a category to be in, Master Steward ! ” 

“ Well, he might be better, sir. I only wish the good butter 
may endure until we get in.” 

If it fail, I shall go nigh to see you clapped into the State’s 
prison, or at least into that Gothic cottage on Blackwell’s 
Island.” 

“ There is an end to all things, Captain Truck, if you please, 
sir, even to butter. I presume, sir, Mr. Vattel, if he know any- 
thing of cookery, will admit that.” 

“ Harkee, Saunders, if you ever insinuate again that Vattel 
belonged to the coppers, in my presence, I’ll take the liberty to 
land you on the coast here, where you may amuse yourself in 
stewing young monkeys for your own dinner. I saw you aboard 
the other ship, sir, overhaulimg her arrangements ; what ; sort of 
a time will the gentlemen be likely to have in her ? ” 

“ Atrocious, sir ! I give you my honor, as a real gentleman, 
sir. Why, would you believe it, Captain Truck, the steward is 
a downright nigger, and he wears earrings, and a red flannel 
shirt, without the least edication. As for the cook, sir, he 
wouldn’t pass an examination for Jemmy Ducks aboard here, 
and there is but one camboose, and one set of coppers.” 

“ Well, the steerage-passengers, in that case, will fare as well 
as the cabin.” 

“ Yes, sir, and the cabin as bad as the steerage ; and for 
my part, I abomernate liberty and equality.” 

“ You should converse with Mr. Dodge on that subject, 
Master Saunders, and let the hardest fend off in the argument. 
May I inquire, sir, if you happen to remember the day of the 
week ? ” 

“ Beyond controversy, sir ; to-morrow will be Sunday, Cap- 
tain Truck, and I think it a thousand pities we have not an op- 
portunity to solicit the prayers and praises of the church, sir, in 
our behalf, sir.” 

“ If to-morrow will be Sunday, to-day must be Saturday, Mr. 
Saunders, unless this last gale has derangedg:he calendar.”'** 

“Quite naturally, sir, and werry justly remarked. Every 
body admits there is no better navigator than Captain Truck, 
sir.” 

“ This may be true, my honest fellow,” returned the cap- 
tain moodily, after making three or four heavy puffs at the 
cigar ; “ but I am sadly out of my road down here in the coun- 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


! 5 8 

try of your amiable family, just now. If this be Saturday, there 
will be a Saturday night before long, and look to it, that we 
have our ‘ sweethearts and wives.’ Though I have neither my- 
self, I feel the necessity of something cheerful, to raise my 
thoughts to the future.” 

“ Depend on my discretion, sir, and I rejoice to hear you 
say it ; for I think, sir, a ship is never so respectable and gen- 
teel as when she celebrates all the anniversaries. You will be 
quite a select and agreeable party to-night, sir.” 

With this remark Mr. Saunders withdrew, to confer with 
Toast on the subject, and Captain Truck proceeded to give his 
orders for the night to Mr. Leach. The proud ship did indeed 
present a sight to make a seaman melancholy ; for to the only 
regular sail that stood, the foresail, by this time was added a 
lower studding-sail, imperfectly rigged, and which would not 
resist a fresh-puff, while a very inartificial jury-topmas*t sup- 
ported a topgallant-sail, that could only be carried in a free , 
wind. Aft, preparations were making of a more permanent na- 
ture, it is true. The upper part of the mainmast had been cut 
away, as low as the steerage-deck, where an arrangement had 
been made to step a spare topmast. The spar itself was lying 
on the deck rigged, and a pair of sheers were in readiness to be 
hoisted, in order to sway it up ; but night approaching, the men 
had been broken off, to rig the yards, bend the sails, and to fit 
the other spars it was intended to use, postponing the last act, 
that of sending all up, until morning. 

“ We are likely to have a quiet night of it,” said the cap- 
tain, glancing his eyes round at the heavens ; “ and at eight 
o’clock to-morrow let all hands be called, when we will turn-to 
with a will, and make a brig of the old hussey. This topmast , 
will do to bear the strain of the spare main-yard, unless there 
come another gale, and by reefing the new mainsail we shall 
be able to make something out of it. The topgallant-mast will 
fit of course above, and we may make out, by keeping a little 
free, to carry the sail : at need, we may possibly coax the con- 
trivance into carrying a studding-sail also. We have sticks for 
no more, though we’ll endeavor to get up something aft, out of : 
the*spare spars obtained from the store-ship. You may knock • 
off at four bells, Mr. Leach, and let the poor fellows have their . 
Saturday’s night in peace. It is a misfortune enough to be dis- 
masted, without having one’s grog stopped.” 

The mate of course obeyed, and the evening shut in beauti- 
fully and placid, with all the glory of a mild night, in a latitude 
as low as that they were in. They who have never seen the ocean 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


*59 

under such circumstances, know little of its charms in its mo- 
ments of rest. The term of sleeping is well applied to its im- 
pressive stillness, for the long sluggish swells on which the ship 
rose and fell, hardly disturbed its surface. The moon did not 
rise until midnight, and Eve, accompanied by Mademoiselle 
Viefville and most of her male companions, walked the deck by 
the bright starlight, until fatigued with pacing their narrow 
bounds. 

The song and the laugh rose frequently from the forecastle, 
where the crew were occupied with their Saturday-night ; and 
occasionally a rude sentiment in the way of a toast was heard. 
But weariness soon got the better of merriment forward, and 
the hard-worked mariners who had the watch below, soon went 
down to their berths, leaving those whose duty it was to remain 
to doze away the long hours in such places as they could find 
on deck. 

“ A white squall,” said Captain Truck, looking up at the 
uncouth sails that hardly impelled the vessel a mile in the hour 
through the water, “ would soon furl all our canvas for us, and 
we are in the very place for such an interlude.” 

“ And what would then become of us ? ” asked Mademoi- 
selle Viefville quickly. 

“ You had better ask what would become of that apology 
for a topsail, mam’selle, and yonder stun’sail, which looks like 
an American in London without straps to his pantaloons. The 
canvas would play kite, and we should be left to renew our in- 
ventions. A ship could scarcely be in better plight than we 
are at this moment, to meet with one of these African flur- 
ries.” 

“ In which case, captain,” observed Mr. Monday, who stood 
by the skylight watching the preparations below, “ wc can go 
to our Saturday-night without fear ; for I see the steward has 
everything ready, and the punch looks very inviting, to say 
nothing of the champagne.” 

“ Gentlemen, we will not forget our duty,” returned the cap- 
tain ; “ we are but a small family, and so much the greater need 
that we should prove' a jolly one. * Mr. Effingham, I hope we 
are to have the honor of your company at ‘ sweethearts and 
wives.’ ” 

Mr. Effingham had no wife, and the invitation coming under 
such peculiar circumstances, produced a pang that Eve, who 
felt his arm tremble, well understood. She mildly intimated 
her intention to go below however ; the whole party followed, 
and lucky it was for the captain’s entertainment that she quitted 


x 6o HOME WARD BOUND. 

the deck, as few would otherwise have been present at it. By 
pressing the passengers to favor him with their company, he 
succeeded in the course of a few minutes in getting all the 
gentlemen seated at the cabin table, with a glass of delicious 
punch before each man. 

“ Mr. Saunders may not be a conjurer or a mathematician, 
gentlemen,” cried Captain Truck, as he ladled out the bever- 
age;, “but he understands the philosophy of sweet and sour, 
strong and weak ; and I will venture to praise his liquor with- 
out tasting it. Well, gentlemen, there are better rigged ships 
on the ocean than this of ours ; but there are few with more 
comfortable cabins, or stouter hulls, or better company. Please 
God we can get a few sticks aloft again, now that we are quit 
of our troublesome shadow, I think I may flatter myself with a 
reasonable hope of landing you, that do me the honor to stand 
by me, in New York, in less time than a common drogger w^ould 
make the passage, with all his legs and arms. Let our first 
toast be, if you please, ‘ A happy end to that which has had a 
disastrous beginning. ’ ” 

Captain Truck’s hard face twitched a little while he was 
making this address, and as he swallowed the punch, his eyes 
glistened in spite of himself. Mr. Dodge, Sir George, and 
Mr. Monday repeated the sentiment sonorously, word for word, 
w'hile the other gentlemen bowed, and drank it in silence. 

The commencement of a regular scene of merriment is 
usually dull and formal, and it was some time before Captain 
Truck could bring any of his companions up to the point wEere 
he wished to see them ; for though a perfectly sober man, he 
loved a social glass, and particularly at those times and seasons 
which conformed to the practice of his calling. Although Eve 
and the governess had declined taking their seats at the table, 
they consented to place themselves where they might be seen, 
and where they might share occasionally in the conversation. 

“ Here have I been drinking sweethearts and wives of a 
Saturday-night, my dear young lady, these forty, years and 
more,” said Captain Truck, after the party had sipped their 
liquor for a minute or two, “without ever falling into luck’s 
latitude, or furnishing myself with either : but, though so neg- 
ligent of my own interests and happiness, I make it an invari- 
able rule to advise all my young friends to get spliced before 
they are thirty. Many is the man who has come aboard my 
ship a determined bachelor in his notions, who has left it at the 
end of the passage’ready to marry the first pretty young woman 
he fell in with.” 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


161 

As Eve had too much of the self-respect of a lady, and of 
the true dignity of her sex, to permit jokes concerning matri- 
mony. or a treatise on love, to make a part of her conversation, 
and all the gentlemen of her party understood her character 
too well, to say nothing of their own habits, to second this at- 
tempt of the captain’s, after a vapid remark or two from the 
others, this rally of the honest mariner produced no suites. 

“ Are we not unusually low, Captain Truck,” inquired Paul 
Blunt, with a view to change the discourse, “ not to have fallen 
in with the trades ? I have commonly met with those winds 
on this coast as high as twenty-six or twenty-seven, and I be- 
lieve you observed to-day, in twenty-four.” 

Captain Truck looked hard at the speaker, and when he 
had done,' he nodded his head in approbation. 

“ You have travelled this road before, Mr. Blunt, I perceive. 
I have suspected you of being a brother chip, from the moment 
I saw you first put your foot on the side-cleets in getting out of 
the boat. You did not come aboard parrot-toed, like a country- 
girl waltzing ; but set the ball of the foot firmly on the wood, 
and swung off the length of your arms, like a man who knows 
how to humor the muscles. Your present remark, too, shows 
you understand where a ship ought to be in her right place. 
As for the trades, they are a little uncertain, like a lady’s mind 
when she has more than one good offer ; for I’ve known them 
to. blow as high as thirty, and then again, to fail a vessel as 
low as twenty-three, or even lower. It is my private opinion, 
gentlemen, and I gladly take this opportunity to make it public, 
that we are on the edge of the trades, or in those light baffling 
winds which prevail along their margin, as eddies play near 
the track of strong steady currents in the ocean. If we can 
force the ship fairly out of this trimming region — that is the 
word, I believe, Mr. Dodge — we shall do w r ell enough ; for a 
northeast, or an east wind, would soon send us up with the 
island, even under the rags we carry. We are very near the 
coast, certainly — much nearer than I could wish ; but when we 
do get the good breeze, it will be all the better for us, as it will 
find us well to windward.” 

“ But these trades, Captain Truck ? ” asked Eve : “ if they 
always blow in the same direction, how is it possible that the 
late gale should drive a ship into the quarter of the ocean 
where they prevail ? ” 

“ Always, means sometimes, my dear young lady. Although 
light winds prevail near the edge of the trades, gales, and tre- 
mendous fellows too, sometimes blow there also, as we have 


162 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


just seen. I think we shall now have settled weather, and that 
our chance of a safe arrival, more particularly in some southern 
American port, is almost certain, though our chance for a speedy 
arrival be not quite as good. I hope before twenty-four hours 
are passed, to see our decks white with sand. 

“ Is that a phenomenon seen here ? ” asked the father. 

“ Often, Mr. Effingham, when ships are close in with Africa, 
and are fairly in the steady winds. To say the truth, the coun- 
try abreast of us, some twenty or thirty miles distant, is not the 
most inviting ; and though it may not be easy to say where the 
garden of Eden is, it is not -hazardous to say it is hot there.” 

“ If we are so very near the coast, why do we not see it ? ” 

“Perhaps we might from aloft, if we had any aloft just 
now. We are to the southward of the mountains, however, and 
off a part of the country where the Great Desert makes from 
the coast. And now, gentlemen, I perceive Mr. Monday finds 
all this sand arid, and I ask permission to give you, one and 
all, ‘ Sweethearts and wives.’ ” 

Most of the company drank the usual toast with spirit, 
though both the Effinghams scarce wetted their lips. Eve stole 
a timid glance at her father, and her own eyes were filled with 
tears as she withdrew them ; for she knew that every allusion 
of this nature revived in him mournful recollections. As for 
her cousin Jack, he was so confirmed a bachelor that she 
thought nothing of. his want of sympathy with such a senti- 
ment. 

“ You must have a care for your heart, in America, Sir 
George Templemore.” cried Mr. Dodge, whose tongue loosened 
with the liquor he drank. “ Our ladies are celebrated for their 
beauty, and are immensely popular, I can assure you.” 

Sir George looked pleased, and it is quite probable his 
thoughts ran on the one particular vestment of the six and 
thirty, in which he ought to make his first appearance in such a 
society. 

“ I allow the American ladies to be handsome,” said Mr. 
Monday ; “ but I think no Englishman need be in any particu- 
lar danger of his heart from such a cause, after having been 
accustomed to the beauty of his own island. Captain Truck, 
I have the honor to drink your health.” 

“ Fairly said,” cried the captain, bowing to the compliment ; 
“ and I ascribe my own hard fortune to the fact that I have 
been kept sailing between two countries so much favored in 
this particular, that I have never been able to make up my 
mind which to prefer. I have wished a thousand times there 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


163 

was but one handsome woman in the world, when a man would 
have nothing to do but fall in love with her ; and make up his 
mind to get married at once, or hang himself.” 

“ That is a cruel wish to us men,” returned Sir George, “ as 
we should be certain to quarrel for the beauty.” 

In such a case,” resumed Mr. Monday, “ we common men 
would have to give way to the claims of the nobility and gen- 
try, and satisfy ourselves with plainer companions ; though an 
En<jjjshman loves his independence, and might rebel. I have 
the honor to drink your health and happiness, Sir George.” 

“ 1 protest against your principle, Mr. Monday,” said Mr. 
Dodge, ‘‘ which is an invasion on human rights. Perfect free- 
dom of action is to be maintained in this matter as in all others. 
I acknowledge that the English ladies are extremely beautiful, 
but I * shall always maintain the supremacy of the American 
fair.” 

/’We wall drink their healths, sir. I am far from denying 
their beauty, Mr. Dodge, but I think you must admit that they 
fade earlier than our British ladies. God bless them both, 
however, and I empty this glass to the two entire nations, with 
all my heart and soul.” 

“ Perfectly polite, Mr. Monday ; but as to the fading of the 
ladies, I am not certain that I can yield an unqualified appro- 
bation to your sentiment.” 

“ Nav, sir, your climate, you will allow, is none of the best, 
and it wears out constitutions almost as fast as your states 
make them.” 

“ I hope there is no real danger to be apprehended from 
the climate,” said Sir George : “ I particularly detest bad cli- 
mates ; and for that reason have always made it a rule never 
to go to Lincolnshire.” 

“ In that case, Sir George, you had better have stayed at 
home. In the way of climate, a man seldom betters himself by 
leaving old England. Now this is the tenth time I’ve been in 
America, allowing that I ever reach there, and although I en- 
tertain a profound respect for the country, I find myself grow- 
ing older every time I quit it. Mr. Effingham, I do myself the 
favor to drink to your health and happiness.” 

“ You live too well when amongst us, Mr. Monday,” said 
the captain ; “ there are too many soft crabs, hard clams, and 
canvas-backs ; too much old Madeira, and generous sherry, ' 
for a man of your well-known taste to resist them. Sit less time 
at table, and go oftener to church this trip, and let us hear 
your report of the consequences a twelvemonth hence.” 


164 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


“You quite mistake my habits, Captain Truck, I give you 
my honor. Although a judicious eater, I seldom take anything 
that is compounded, being a plain roast and boiled man ; a 
true old-fashioned Englishman in this respect, satisfying my 
appetite with solid beef and mutton, and turkeys and pork, and 
puddings and potatoes, and turnips and, carrots, and similar sim- 
ple food ; and then I never drink. — Ladies, I ask the honor to be 
permitted to wish you a happy return to your native countries. 
— I ascribe all the difficulty, sir, to the climate, which wij^not 
permit a man to digest properly.” 

#< Well, Mr. Monday, I subscribe to most of your opinions, 
and I believe few men cross the ocean together that are more 
harmonious in sentiment, in general, than has proved to be the 
case between you and Sir George, and myself,” observed Mr. 
Dodge, glancing obliquely and pointedly at the rest of the 
party, as if he thought they were in a decided minority ; “ but' 
in this instance, I feel constrained to record my vote in the 
negative. I believe America has as good a climate, and as 
good general digestion as commonly falls’ to the lot of mortals : 
more than this I do not claim for the country, and less than 
this I should .be reluctant to maintain. I have travelled a little, 
gentlemen, not as much, perhaps, as the Messrs. Effinghams ; 
but then a man can see no more than is to be seen, and I do 
affirm, Captain Truck, that in my poor judgment, which I 
know is good for nothing — ” 

“ Why do you use it, then ? ” abruptly asked the straight- 
forward captain ; “ why not rely on a better ? ” 

“ We must use such as we have, or go without, sir ; and I 
suspect, in my very poor judgment, which is probably poorer 
than that of most others on board, that America is a very good 
sort of a country. At all events, after having seen something 
of other countries, and governments, and people, I am of 
opinion that America, as a country, is quite good enough for 
me.” 

“ You never said truer words, Mr. Dodge, and I beg you 
will join Mr. Monday and myself in a fresh glass of punch, just 
to help on the digestion. You have seen more of human na- 
ture than your modesty allows you to proclaim, and I dare say 
this company would be gratified if you would overcome all 
scruples, and let us know your private opinions of the different 
people you have visited. Tell us something of that dittur you 
made on the Rhine.” 

“ Mr. Dodge intends to publish, it is to be hoped ! ” ob 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


i6 5 

served Mr. Sharp ; “ and it may not be fair to anticipate his 
matter.” 

“ I beg, gentlemen, you will have no scruples on that score, 
for my work will be rather philosophical and general, than of 
the particular nature of private anecdotes. Saunders, hand 
me the manuscript journal you will find on the shelf of our 
stateroom, next to Sir George’s patent toothpick case. This 
is the book ; and now, gentlemen and ladies, I beg you to 
remember that these are merely the ideas as they arose, and 
not my more mature reflections.” 

“ Take a little punch, sir,” interrupted the captain, again, 
whose hard nor’west face was set in the most demure attention. 
“ There is nothing like punch to clear the voice, Mr. Dodge ; 
the acid’ removes the huskiness, the sugar softens the tones, 
the water mellows the tongue, and the Jamaica braces the mus- 
cles. With a plenty of punch, a man soon gets to be another 
— I forget the name of that great orator of antiquity, — it wasn’t 
Vattel, however.” 

“You mean Demosthenes, sir; and, gentlemen, I beg you 
to remark that this orator was a republican : but there can be 
no question that liberty is favoiable to the encouragement of 
all the higher qualities. Would you prefer a few notes on 
Paris, ladies, or shall I commence with some extracts about the 
Rhine ! ” 

“ Oh ! de grace , Monsieur, be so very kind as not to over- 
look Paris /” said Mademoiselle Viefville. 

Mr. Dodge bowed graciously, and turning over the leaves 
of his private journal, he alighted in the heart of the great city 
named. After some preliminary hemming, he commenced 
reading in a grave didactic tone, that sufficiently showed the 
value he had attached to his own observations. 

“ ‘ Dejjuned at ten, as usual, an hour, that I find exceedingly 
unreasonable and improper, and one that would meet with 
general disapprobation .in America. I do not wonder that a 
people gets to be immoral and depraved in their practices, 
who keep such improper hours. The mind acquires habits of 
impurity, and all the sensibilities become blunted, by taking 
the meals out of the natural seasons. ' I impute much of the 
corruption of France to the periods of the day in which the 
food is taken — ’ ” 

“ Voila une drole a’ idee!” ejaculated Mademoiselle Vief- 
ville. 

“ ‘ — In which food is taken,” repeated Mr. Dodge, who 
fancied the involuntary exclamation was in approbation of the 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


1 66 

justice of his sentiments. ‘ Indeed the custom of taking wine 
at this meal, together with the immorality of the hour, must be 
chief reasons why the French ladies are so much in the practice 
of drinking to excess.’ ” 

“Mats, monsieur /” 

“You perceive, mademoiselle calls in question the accu- 
racy of your facts,” observed Mr. Blunt, who, in common with 
all the listeners, Sir George and Mr. Monday excepted, began 
to enjoy a scene which at first had promised nothing but ennui 
and disgust. 

“ I have it on the best authority, I give you my honor, or I 
W'ould not introduce so grave a charge in a work of this contem- 
plated importance. I obtained my information from an English 
gentleman who has resided twelve years in Paris ; and he in- 
forms me that a very large portion of the women of fashion in 
that capital, let them belong to what country they will, are dis- 
sipated.” 

“ A la bonne heure, monsieur! — mais, to drink, it is very 
different.” 

“ Not so much so, mademoiselle, as you imagine,” rejoined 
John Effingham. “ Mr. Dodge is a purist in language as w r ell 
as in morals, and he uses terms differently from us less-in- 
structed prattlers. By dissipated, he understands a drunkard.” 

“ Comment /” 

“Certainly; Mr. John Effingham, I presume, will at least 
give us the credit in America in speaking our language better 
than any other known people. ‘ After dejjunying, took a 
phyacre and rode to the palace, to. see the king and royal family 
leave for Nully. — ’ ” 

“ Pour ou ? ” 

“ Pour Neuilly , mademoiselle ,” Eve quietly answered. 

“ ‘ — For Nully. His majesty w r ent on horseback, preceding 
his illustrious family and all the rest of the noble party, dressed 
in a red coat, laced with white on the seams, wearing blue 
breeches and a cocked hat.’ ” 

u Cieir ’ 

“ ‘ I made the king a suitable republican reverence as he 
passed, which he answered with a gracious smile, and a benig- 
nant glance of his royal eye. The Hon. Louis Philippe Orleans, 
the present sovereign of the French, is a gentleman of portly 
and commanding appearance, and in his state attire, which he 
wore on this occasion, looks ‘ every inch a king.’ He rides 
with grace and dignity, and sets an example of decorum and 
gravity to his subjects, by the solemnity of his air, that it is to 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


167 

be hoped will produce a beneficial and benign influence during 
this reign, on the manners of the nation. His dignity was al- 
together worthy of the schoolmaster of Haddonfield.’ ” 

“ Par exemple! ” 

“ Yes, mam’selle, in the way of example, it is that I mean. 
Although a pure democrat, and every way opposed to exclusion, 
I was particularly struck with the royalty of his majesty’s de- 
meanor, and the great simplicity of his whole deportment. I 
stood in the crowd next to a very accomplished countess, who 
spoke English, and she did me the honor to invite me to pay 
her a visit at her hotel, in the vicinity of the Bourse.” 

“ Mon Dieu — mon Dieu — mon Dieu /” 

“ Aft,er promising my fair companion to be punctual, I 
walked as far as Notter Dam — ” 

“ I wish Mr. Dodge would be a little more distinct in his 
names,” said Mademoiselle Viefville, who had begun to take an 
interest in the subject, that even valueless opinions excite in 
us concerning things that touch the affections. 

“ Mr. Dodge is a little profane, mademoiselle,” observed 
the captain ; “ but his journal probably was not intended for 
the ladies, and you must overlook it. Well, sir, you went to 
that naughty place — ” 

“ To Notter Dam, Captain Truck, if you please, and I flatter 
myself that is pretty good French.” 

“ I think, ladies and gentlemen, we have a right to insist on 
a translation ; for plain roast and boiled men, like Mr. Mon- 
day and myself, are sometimes weeping when we ought to 
laugh, so long as the discourse is in anything but old-fashioned 
English. Help yourself, Mr. Monday, and remember, you 
never drink.” 

“ Notter Dam , I believe, mam’selle, means our Mother ; the 
Church of our Mother. — Notter, or Noster, our, — Dam, 
Mother : Notter Dam. ‘ Here I was painfully impressed with 
the irreligion of the structure, and the general absence of piety 
in the architecture. Idolatry abounded, and so did holy water. 
How often have I occasion to bless Providence for having 
made me one of the descendants of those pious ancestors who 
cast their fortunes in the wilderness in preference to giving up 
their hold on faith and charity ! The building is much inferior 
in comfort and true taste to the commoner American churches, 
and met with my unqualified disapprobation.’ ” 

“ Est il possible que cela soit vrai, ma chere /” 

“ Je Pesp2re, bien , mademoiselle 

“You may despair bien, cousin Eve,” said John Effingham, 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


1 68 

whose fine curvilinear face curled even more than usual with 
contempt. 

The ladies whispered a few explanations, and Mr. Dodge, 
who fancied it was only necessary to resolve to be perfect to 
achieve his end, went on with his comments, with all the self- 
satisfaction of a provincial critic. 

“ ‘ From Notter Dam I proceeded in a cabrioly to the great 
national burying-ground, Pere la Chaise, so termed from the 
circumstance that its distance from the capital renders chaises 
necessary for the convoys — ” 

“How’s this, how’s this ! ” interrupted Mr. Truck ; “ is one 
obliged to sail under a convoy about the streets of Paris ? ” 

“ Monsieur Dodge veut dire , convoi. Mr. Dodge mean to 
say, convoi kindly interposed Mademoiselle Viefville. 

“ Mr. Dodge is a profound republican, and is an advocate 
for rotation in language, as well as in office : I must accuse you 
of inconstancy, my dear friend, if I die for it. You certainly 
do not pronounce your words always in the same way, and 
when I had the honor of carrying you out this time six months, 
when you were practising the continentals, as you call them, 
you gave very different sounds to many of the words I then 
had the pleasure and gratification of hearing you use.” 

“ We all improve by travelling, sir, and I make no question 
that my knowledge of foreign language is considerably en- 
larged by practice in the countries in which they are spoken.” 

Here the reading of the journal was interrupted by a digres- 
sion on language, in which Messrs. Dodge, Monday, Temple- 
more, and Truck were the principal interlocutors, and during 
which the pitcher of punch was twice renewed. We shall not 
record much of this learned discussion, which was singularly 
commonplace, though a few of the remarks may be given as a 
specimen of the whole. 

“ I must be permitted to say,” replied Mr. Monday to one 
of Mr. Dodge’s sweeping claims to superiority in favor of his 
own nation, “that I think it quite extraordinary an Englishman 
should be obliged to go out of his own country in order to hear 
his own language spoken in purity ; and as one who has seen 
your people, Mr. Dodge, I will venture to affirm that nowht *-e 
is English better spoken than in Lancashire. * Sir George, I 
drink your health ! ” 

“ More patriotic than just, Mr. Monday ; everybody al- 
lows that the American of the eastern states speaks the best 
English in the world, and I think either of these gentlemen 
will concede that.” 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


169 

44 Under the penalty of being nobody,” cried Captain 
Truck; “for my own part, I think, if a man wishes to hear 
the language in perfection, he ought to pass a week or ten 
days in the river. I must say, Mr. Dodge, I object to many of 
your sounds, particularly that of inyon, which I myself heard 
you call onion, no later than yesterday.” 

“ Mr. Monday is a little peculiar in fancying that the best 
English is to be met with in Lancashire,” observed Sir George 
Templemore ; “ for I do assure you that, in town, we have 
difficulty in understanding gentlemen from your part of the 
kingdom.” 

This was a hard cut from one in whom Mr. Monday ex- 
pected to find an ally, and that gentleman was driven to wash- 
ing down the discontent it excited, in punch. 

“ But all this time we have interrupted the convoi, or convoy, 
captain,” said Mr. Sharp ; “ and Mr. Dodge, to say nothing of 
the mourners, has every right to complain. I beg that gentle- 
man will proceed with his entertaining extracts.” 

Mr. Dodge hemmed, sipped a little more liquor, ^blew his 
nose, and continued, — 

“ 4 The celebrated cemetery is, indeed, worthy of its high 
reputation. The utmost republican simplicity prevails in the 
interments, ditches being dug in which the bodies are laid, 
side by side, without distinction of rank, and with regard only 
to the order in which the convoys arrive.’ I think this sen- 
tence, gentlemen, will have great success in America, where 
the idea of any exclusiveness is quite odious to the majority.” 

“ Well, for my part,” said the captain, “ I should have no 
particular objection to being excluded from such a grave : one 
would be afraid of catching the cholera in so promiscuous a 
company.” 

Mr. Dodge turned over a few leaves, and gave other ex- 
tracts. 

“ ‘ The last six hours have been devoted to a profound in- 
vestigation of the fine arts. My first visit was to the gullyteen ; 
after which I passed an instructive hour or two in the galleries 
of the Musy.’ — ” 

44 Ou, done ? ” 

44 Le Musee, mademoiselle .” 

“ — ‘ Where I discovered several very extraordinary things, 
in the way of sculpture and painting. I was particularly struck 
with the manner in which a plate was portrayed in the cele- 
brated marriage of Cana, which might very well have been 
taken for real Delft, and there was one finger on the hand of a 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


170 

lady that seemed actually fitted to receive and to retain the 
hymeneal ring.’ ” 

“ Did you inquire if she were engaged ? — Mr. Monday, we 
will drink her health.” 

“ ‘ Saint Michael and the Dragon is a shefdowvry .’ — ” 

“ Un qnoi ? ” 

“ Un chef- a? oeuvre, mademoiselle, ” 

“ — ‘ The manner in which the angel holds the dragon with 
his feet, looking exactly like a worm trodden on by the foot of 
a child, is exquisitely plaintive and interesting. Indeed these 
touches of nature abound in the works of the old masters, and 
I saw several fruit-pieces that I could have eaten. One really 
gets an appetite by looking at many things here, and I no 
longer wonder that a Raphael, a Titian, a Correggio, a 
Guide-o.’—” 

“ Un quoit” 

“ Un Guido, mademoiselle” 

“ Or a Cooley.” 

“ And pray who may he be ? ” asked Mr. Monday. 

“ A young genius in Dodgetown, who promises one day 
to render the name of an American illustrious. He has 
painted a new sign for the store, that in its way is quite equal 
to the marriage of Cana. ‘ I have stood with tears over the 
despair of a Niobe,’ ” continuing to read, “ ‘ and witnessed the 
contortions of the snakes in the Laocoon with a convulsive 
eagerness to clutch them, that has made me fancy I could hear 
them hiss.” That sentence, I think, will be likely to be 
noticed even, in the New-Old-New- Yorker, one of the very best 
reviews of our days, gentlemen.” 

“ Take a little more punch, Mr. Dodge,” put in the atten- 
tive captain ; “ this grows affecting, and needs alleviation, as 
Saunders would say. Mr. Monday, you will get a bad name 
for being too sober, if you never empty your glass. Proceed, 
in the name of Heaven ! Mr. Dodge.” 

“ ‘ In the evening I went to the Grand Opery.’ — ” 

“ Ou, done ? ” 

“ Au grand Hoppery , mademoiselle,” replied John Effing* 

ham. 

“ — ‘To the Grand Opery,'” resumed Mr. Dodge, with 
emphasis, his eyes beginning to glisten by this time, for he 
had often applied to the punch for inspiration. “ ‘ where I lis- 
tened to music that is altogether inferior to that which we 
enjoy in America, especially at the general trainings, and on 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


171 

the Sabbath. The want of science was conspicuous ; and if 
this be music, then do I know nothing about it ! ” 

“ A judicious remark ! ” exclaimed the captain. — “ Mr. 
Dodge has great merit as a writer, for he loses no occasion to 
illustrate his opinions by the most unanswerable facts. He has 
acquired a taste for Zip Coon and Long Tail Blue, and it is no 
wonder he feels a contempt for your inferior artists.” 

“ ‘ As for the dancing,’ ” continued the editor of the Active 
Inquirer, “ ‘ it is my decided impression that nothing can be 
worse. The movement was more suited to a funeral than the 
ballroom, and I affirm, without fear of contradiction, that there 
is not an assembly in all America in which a cotillion would not 
be danced in one half the time that one was danced in the bally 
to-night.’ ” 

“ Dans le quoi ? ” 

“ I believe I have not given the real Parisian pronuncia- 
tion to this word, which the French call bal-lay ,” continued the 
reader, with great candor. 

“Belay, or make all fast, as we say on shipboard. Mr. 
Dodge, as master of this vessel, I beg to return you the united, 
or as Saunders would say, the condensed thanks of the passen- 
gers, for this information ; and next Saturday we look for a 
renewal of the pleasure. The ladies are getting to be sleepy, 
I perceive, and as Mr. Monday never drinks and the other 
gentlemen have finished their punch, we may as well retire, to 
get ready for a hard day’s work to-morrow.” 

Captain Truck made this proposal, because he saw that one or 
two of the party were plenum punch , and that Eva and her com- 
panion were becoming aware of the propriety of retiring. It 
was also true that he foresaw the necessity of rest in order to 
be ready for the exertions of the morning. 

After the party had broken up, which it did very contrary 
to the wishes of Messrs. Dodge and Monday, Mademoiselle 
Yiefville passed an hour in the stateroom of Miss Effingham, 
during which time she made several supererogatory complaints 
of the manner in which the editor of the Active Inquirer had 
viewed things in Paris, besides asking a good many questions 
concerning his occupation and character. 

“ I am not quite certain, my dear mademoiselle, that I can 
give you a very learned description of the animal you think worthy 
of all these questions, but, by the aid of Mr. John Effingham’s 
information, and a few words that have fallen from Mr. Blunt, 
I believe it ought to be something as follows : — America once 
produced a very distinguished philosopher, named Franklin — ” 


172 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


“ Comment, ma chere ! Tout le monde le connait ! ” 

“This Monsieur Franklin commenced life as a printer; 
but' living to a great age, and rising to high employments, he 
became a philosopher in morals, as his studies had made him 
once in physics. Now, America is full of printers, and most of 
them fancy themselves Franklins, until time and. failures teach 
them discretion.” 

“ Mais the world has not seen but un seul Franklin ! ” 

“ Nor is it likely to see another very soon. In America the 
young men are taught, justly enough, that by merit they may 
rise to the highest situations ; and, always according to Mr. 
John Effingham, too many of them fancy that because they are 
at liberty to turn any high qualities they may happen to have 
to account, they are actually' fit for anything. Even he allows 
this peculiarity of the country does much good, but he maintains 
that it also does much harm, by causing pretenders to start up 
in all directions. Of this class he describes Mr. Dodge to be. 
This person, instead of working at the mechanical part of a 
press, to which he was educated, has the ambition to control 
its intellectual, and thus edits the Active Inquirer.” 

“ It must be a very useful journal ! ” 

“ It answers his purposes, most probably. He is full of 
provincial ignorance, and provincial prejudices, you perceive ; 
and, I dare say, he makes his paper the circulator of all these, in 
addition to the personal rancor, envy, and uncharitableness, 
that usually distinguish a pretension that mistakes itself for am- 
bition. My cousin Jack affirms that America is filled with 
such as he.” 

“ And, Monsieur Effingham ? ” 

“ Oh ! my dear father is all mildness and charity, you know, 
mademoiselle, and he only looks at the bright side of the picture, 
for he maintains that a great deal of good results from the ac- 
tivity and elasticity of such a state of things. While he confesses 
to a great deal of downright ignorance that is paraded as knowl- 
edge ; to much narrow intolerance that is offensively prominent 
in the disguise of principle and a love of liberty ; and to 
vulgarity and personalities that wound all taste, and every sen- 
timent of right, he insists on it that the main result is good.” 

“ In such a case there is need of an umpire. You men- 
tioned the opinion of Mr. Blunt. Comme ce jeune homme parle 
Hen Francais ! ” 

Eve hesitated, and she changed color slightly, before she 
answered. 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


J 7 3 

“ I am not certain that the opinion of Mr. Blunt ought to be 
mentioned in opposition to those of my father and cousin Jack, 
on such a subject,” she said. “ He is very young, and it is 
now, quite questionable whether he is even an American at all.” 

“ Tant mieux , ma chere. He has been much in the country, 
and it is not the native that make the best judge when the 
stranger has many opportunities of seeing.” 

“On this principle, mademoiselle, you are, then, to give up 
your own judgment about France, on all those points, in which 
I have the misfortune to differ from you,” said Eve, laughing. 

“ Pas tout a fait,” returned the governess goodhumoredly. 
“ Age and experience must pass pour quelque chose. Et Mon- 
ster Blunt 1 ” 

“ Monsieur Blunt leans nearer to the side of cousin Jack, I 
fear, than to that of my dear father. He says men of Mr. 
Dodge’s character, propensities, malignancy, intolerance, ignor- 
ance, vulgarity, and peculiar vices abound in and about the 
American press. He even insists that they do an incalculable 
amount of harm, by influencing those who have no better 
soilrces of information ; by setting up low jealousies and envy 
in the place of principles and the right ; -by substituting — I use 
his own words, mademoiselle,” said Eve, blushing with the con- 
sciousness of the fidelity of her memory — “by substituting un- 
instructed provincial notions for the true taste and liberality ; by 
confounding the real principles of liberty with personal envies, 
and the jealousies of station ; and by losing sight entirely of 
their duties to the public, in the effort to advance their own 
interests. He says that the government is in truth a press- 
ocracy , and a press-ocracy, too, that has not the redeeming 
merit of either principles, tastes, talents or knowledge.” 

“ Ce Monsieur Blunt has been very explicit and suffisam- 
?nent eloquent ',” returned Mademoiselle Viefville, gravely ; for 
the prudent governess did not fail to observe that Eve used 
language so very different from that which was habitual to her, 
as to make her suspect she quoted literally. For the first time 
the suspicion was painfully awakened, that it was her duty to 
be more vigilant in relation to the intercourse between her 
charge and the two agreeable young men whom accident had 
given them as fellow-passengers. After a short but amusing 
pause, she again adverted to the subject of their previous con- 
versation. 

“ Ce Monsieur Dodge, est il ridicule ! ” 

“ On that point at least, my dear mademoiselle, there can 
be no mistake. And yet cousin Jack insists that this stuff will 


! y 4 HOME WARD BOUND . 

be given to his readers, as views of Europe worthy of their at- 
tention.” 

“ Ce conte du roi ! — metis, dest trop fort ! ” 

“ With the coat laced at the seams, and the cocked hat ! ” 

“ Et T honorable Louis Philippe a* Orleans / ” 

“ Orleans, mademoiselle ; d’Orleans would be anti-repub- 
ican.” 

Then the two ladies sat looking at each other a few mo- 
ments in silence, when both, although of a proper retenue of 
manner in general, burst into a hearty and long-continued fit of 
laughter. Indeed, so long did Eve, in the buoyancy of her young 
spirits, and her keen perception of the ludicrous, indulge her- 
self, that her fair hair fell about her rosy cheeks, and her bright 
eyes fairly danced with delight. 


CHAPTER XVI. 

And there he went ashore without delay, 

Having no custom-house or quarantine, — 

To ask him awkward questions on the way 
About the time and place where he had been. 

Byron. 

Captain Truck was in a sound sleep as soon as his head 
touched the pillow. With the exception of the ladies, the others 
soon followed his example ; and as the people were excessively 
wearied, and the night was so tranquil, ere long only a single 
pair of eyes were open on deck : those of the man at the wheel. 
The wind died away, and even this worthy was not innocent of 
nodding at his post. 

Under such circumstances, it will occasion no great surprise 
that the cabin was aroused next morning with the sudden and 
startling information that the land was close aboard the ship. 
Every one hurried on deck, where, sure enough, the dreaded 
coast of Africa was seen, with a palpable distinctness, within 
two miles of the vessel. It presented a long broken line of 
sandhills, unrelieved by a tree, or by so few as almost to merit 
this description, and with a hazy background of remote moun- 
tains to the northeast. The margin of the actual coast nearest 
to the ship was indentqjl witty bays ; and even rocks appeared 
in places ; but the general character of the scene was that of a 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


*75 

fierce and burning sterility. On this picture of desolation all 
stood gazing in awe and admiration for some minutes, as the 
day gradually brightened, until a cry arose from forward, of “ a 
ship ! ” 

“ Whereaway ? ” sternly demanded Captain Truck ; for the 
sudden and unexpected appearance of this dangerous coast had 
awakened all that was forbidding and severe in the tempera- 
ment of the old master; “whereaway, sir ? ” 

“ On the larboard quarter, sir, and at anchor.” 

“ She is ashore ! ” exclaimed half-a-dozen voices at the same 
instant, just as the words came from the last speaker. The 
glass soon settled this important point. At the distance of 
about a league astern of them, were, indeed, to be seen the 
spars of a ship, with the hull looming on the sands, in a way to 
leave no doubt of her being a wreck. It was the first impres- 
sion of all, that this, at last, was, the Foam ; but Captain Truck 
soon announced the contrary. 

“ It is a Swede, or a Dane,” he said, “ by his rig and his 
model. A stout, solid, compact sea-boat, that is high and dry 
on the sands, looking as if he had been built there. He does 
not appear even to have bilged, and most of his sails, and all 
of his yards, are in their places. Not a living soul is to be seen 
about her ! Ha ! there are signs of tents made of sails on 
shore, and broken bales of goods ! 'Her people have been 
seized and carried into the desert, as usual, and this is a fear- 
ful hint that we must keep the Montauk off the bottom. Turn- 
to the people, Mr. Leach, and get up your sheets that we may 
step our jury-masts at once ; the smallest braitze on the land 
would drive us ashore, without any after-sail.” 

While the mates and the crew set about completing the work 
they had prepared the previous day, Captain Truck and his 
passengers passed the time in ascertaining all they could con- 
cerning the wreck, and the reasons of their being themselves in 
a position so very different from what they had previously be- 
lieved. 

As respects the first, little more could be ascertained ; she 
lay absolutely high and dry on a hard sandy beach, where she 
had probably been cast during the late gale, and sufficient signs 
were made out by the captain, to prove to him that she had 
been partly plundered. More than this could not be discov- 
ered at that distance, and the work of the Montauk was too 
urgent to send a boat manned with her own people to examine. 
Mr. Blunt, Mr. Sharp, Mr. Monday, and the servants of the two 
former, however, volunteering to pull the cutter, it was finally 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


176 

decided to look more closely into the facts, Captain Truck him 
self taking charge of the expedition. — While the latter is getting 
ready, a word of explanation will suffice to tell the reader the 
reason why the Montauk had fallen so much to leeward. 

The ship being so near the coast, it became now very ob- 
vious she was driven by a current that set along the land, but 
which, it was probable, had set towards it more in the offing. 
The imperceptible drift between the observation of the pre- 
vious day and the discovery of the coast, had sufficed to carry 
the vessel a great distance ; and to this simple cause, coupled 
perhaps with some neglect in the steerage during the past night, 
was her present situation to be solely attributed. Just at this 
moment, the little air there was came from the land, and by 
keeping her head off shore, Captain Truck entertained no doubt 
of his being able to escape the calamity that had befallen the 
other ship in the fury of the gale. A wreck is always a matter of 
so much interest with mariners, therefore, that taking all these 
things into view, he had come to the determination we have 
mentioned, of examining into the history of the one in sight, so 
far as circumstances permitted. 

The Montauk carried three boats; the launch, a large, 
safe, and well-constructed craft, which stood in the usual chucks 
between the foremast and mainmast : a jolly-boat, and a cutter. 
It was next to impossible to get the first into the water, deprived 
as the ship was of its mainmast ; but the other hanging at 
davits, one on each quarter, were easily lowered. The packets 
seldom carry any arms beyond a light gun to fire .signals 
with, the pistes of the master, and perhaps a fowling-piece 
or two. Luckily the passengers were better provided : all the 
gentlemen had pistols, Mr. Monday and Mr. Dodge excepted, if 
indeed they properly belonged to this category, as Captain Truck 
would say, and most of them had also fowling-pieces. Although 
a careful examination of the coast with the glasses offered no 
signs of the presence of any danger from enemies, these arms 
were carefully collected, loaded, and deposited in the boats, 
in order to be prepared for the worst. Provisions and water 
were also provided and the party were about to proceed. 

Captain Truck and one or two of the adventurers were still 
on the deck, when Eve, with that strange love of excitement 
and adventure that often visits the most delicate spirits, ex- 
pressed an idle regret that she could not make one in the ex- 
pedition. 

“ There is something so strange and wild in landing on 


NOME WARD BOUND . 


177 

an African desert,” she said ; “ and I think a near view of 
the wreck would repay us, mademoiselle, for the hazard,” 

The young men hesitated between their desire to have 
such a companion, and their doubts of the prudence of the 
step : but Captain Truck declared there could be no risk, and 
Mr. Effingham consenting, the whole plan was altered so as to 
includes, the ladies, for there was so much pleasure in varying 
the monotonyof a calm, and escaping the confinement of ship, 
that everybody entered into the new arrangement * with zeal 
and spirit. 

A single whip was rigged on the fore-yard, a chair was 
slung, and in ten minutes both ladies were floating on the 
ocean in the cutter. This boat pulled six oars, which were 
manned by the servants of the two Messrs. Effinghams, Mr. 
Blunt, and Mr. Sharp, together with the two latter gentlemen 
in person. Mr. Effingham steered. Captain Truck had the 
jolly-boat, of which he pulled an oar himself, aided by Saunders, 
Mr. Monday, and Sir George Templemore ; the mates and the 
regular crew being actively engaged in rigging their jury-mast. 
Mr. Dodge declined beclined being of the party, feeding him- 
self with the hope that the present would be a favorable occa- 
sion to peep into the staterooms, to run his eye over forgotten 
letters and papers, and otherwise to increase the general stock 
of information of the editor of the Active Inquirer. 

“ Look to your chains, and see all clear for a run of the an- 
chors, Mr. Leach, should you set within a mile of the shore,” 
called out the captain, as they pulled off from the vessel’s side. 
“ the ship is drifting along the land, but the wind you have 
will hardly do more than meet the send of the sea, which is on 
shore : should anything go wrong, show an ensign at the head 
of the jury-stick forward.” 

The mate waved his hand, and the adventurers passed with- 
out the sound of the voice. It was a strange sensation to most 
of those in the boats, to find themselves in their present situa- 
tion. Eve and Mademoiselle Viefville, in particular, could 
scarcely credit their senses, when they found the eggshells 
that held them heaving and setting like bubbles on those long 
sluggish swells, which had seemed of so little consequence 
while in the ship, but which now resembled the heavy res- 
pirations of a leviathan. The boats, indeed, though always 
gliding onward, impelled by the oars, appeared at moments to 
be sent helplessly back and forth like playthings of the mighty 
deep, and it was some minutes before either obtained a suffi- 
cient sense of security to enjoy her situation. As they receded 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


178 

fast from the Montauk, too, their situation seemed still more 
critical ; and with all her sex’s love of excitement, Eve heartily 
repented of her undertaking before they had gone a mile. 
The gentlemen, however, were all in good spirits, and as the 
boats kept near each other, Captain Truck enlivening their 
way with his peculiar wit, and Mr. Effingham, who was influ- 
enced by a motive of humanity in consenting to come, being 
earnest and interested, Eve soon began to entertain other 
ideas. 

As they drew near the end of their little expedition, en- 
tirely new feelings got the mastery of the whole party. The 
solitary and gloomy grandeur of the coasts, the sublime sterility, 
— for even naked sands may become sublime by their vast- 
ness, — the heavy moanings of the ocean on the beach, and the 
entire spectacle of the solitude, blended as it was with the 
associations of Africa, time, and the changes of history, united 
to produce sensations of a pleasing melancholy. The spectacle 
of the ship, bringing with it the images of European civilization, 
as it lay helpless and deserted on the sands, too, heightened 
all. 

This vessel, beyond a question, had been driven up on a 
sea during the late gale, at a point where the water was of 
sufficient depth to float her, until within a few yards of the very 
spot where she now lay ; Captain Truck giving the following 
probable history of the affair : 

“ On all sandy coasts,” he said, “ the return waves that 
are cast on the beach fotm a bar, by washing back with them 
a portion of the particles. This bar is usually within thirty or 
forty fathoms of the shore, and there is frequently sufficient 
water within it to float a ship. As this bar, however prevents 
the return of all the water, on what is called the under-tow, 
narrow channels make from point to point, through which this 
excess of the element escapes. These channels are known 
by the appearance of the water over them, the seas breaking 
less at those particular places than in the spots where the 
bottom lies nearer to the surface, and all experienced mariners 
are aware of the fact. No doubt, the unfortunate master of 
this ship, finding himself reduced to the necessity of running 
ashore to save the lives of his crew, has chosen such a place, 
and has consequently forced his vessel up to a spot where she 
has remained dry as soon as the sea fell. So worthy a fellow 
deserved a better fate ; for this wreck is not three days old, 
and yet no signs are to be seen of any who were in that stout 
ship.” 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


179 

These remarks were made as the crew of the two boats lay 
on their oars, at a short distance without the line on the water, 
where the breaking of the sea pointed out the position of the 
bar. The channel, also, was plainly visible directly astern of 
the ship, the sea merely rising and falling in it without comb- 
ing. A short distance to the southward, a few bold black 
rocks thrust themselves forward, and formed a sort of bay, in 
which it was practicable to land without risk ; for they had come 
on the coast in a region where the monotony of the sands, as 
it appeared when close in, was little relieved by the presence 
of anything else. 

“ If you will keep the cutter just without the breakers, Mr. 
Effingham,” Captain Truck continued, after standing up awhile 
and examining the shore, “ I will pull into the channel, and 
land in yonder bay. If you feel disposed to follow, you may 
do so by giving the tiller to Mr. Blunt, on receiving a signal to 
that effect from me. Be steady, gentlemen, at your oars, and 
look well to the arms on landing, for we are in a knavish part 
of the world. Should any of the monkeys or ouran-outangs 
claim kindred with Mr. Saunders, we may find it no easy matter 
to persuade them to leave us the pleasure of his society.” 

The captain made a sign, and the jolly-boat entered the 
channel. Inclining south, it was seen rising and falling just 
within the breakers, and then it was hid by the rocks. In 
another minute, Mr. Truck, followed by all but Mr. Monda}', 
who stood sentinel at the boat, was on the rocks, making his 
way towards the wreck. On reaching the latter, he ascended 
swiftly even to the main cross-trees. Here a long examination 
of the plain, beyond the bank that hid it from the view of all 
beneath, succeeded, and then the signal to come on was made 
to those who were still in the boat. 

“ Shall we venture ? ” cried Paul Blunt, soliciting an assent 
by the very manner in which he put the question. 

“ What say you, dear father ? ” 

“ I hope we may not yet be too late to succor some Chris- 
tian in distress, my child. Take the tiller, Mr. Blunt, and in 
Heaven’s good name, and for humanity’s sake, let us pro- 
ceed ? ” 

The boat advanced Paul Blunt standing erect to steer ; his 
ardor to proceed corrected by apprehensions on account of 
her precious freight. There was an instant when the ladies 
trembled, for it seemed as if the light boat was about to be 
cast upon the shore, like the froth of the sea that shot past 
them ; but the steady hand of him who steered averted the dan- 


I 8o HOMEWARD BOUND. 

ger, and in another minute they were floating at the side of the 
jolly-boat. The ladies got ashore without much difficulty, and 
stood on the summit of the rocks. 

“ Nous void done en Afrique ,” exclaimed Mademoiselle 
Viefville, with that sensation of singularity that comes over all 
when they first find themselves in situations of extraordinary 
novelty. 

“ The wreck — the wreck,” murmured Eve ; “ let us go to 
the wreck. There may be yet a hope of saving some wretched 
sufferer.” 

Toward the wreck they all proceeded, after leaving two of 
the servants tc relieve Mr. Monday on his watch. 

It was an impressive thing to stand at the side of a ship on 
the sands of Africa, a scene in which the desolation of an aban- 
doned vessel was heightened by the desolation of a desert. 
The position of the vessel, which stood nearly erect, imbedded 
in the sands, rendered it less difficult than might be supposed 
for the ladies to ascend to, and to walk her decks, a rude stag- 
ing having been made already to facilitate the passage. Here 
the scene became thrice exciting, for it was the very type of a 
hastily deserted and cherished dwelling. 

Before Eve and Mademoiselle Viefville gained the deck, 
the other party had ascertained that no living soul remained. 
The trunks, chests, furniture, and other appliances of the cabin 
had been rummaged, and many boxes had been raised from 
the hold, and plundered, a part of their contents still lying 
scattered on the decks. The ship, however, had been lightly 
freighted, and the bulk of her cargo, which was salt, was 
apparently untouched. A Danish ensign was found bent to the 
halyards, a proof that Captain Truck’s original conjecture con- 
cerning the character of the vessel was accurate. Her name, 
too, was ascertained to be the Carrier, as translated into English 
and she belonged to Copenhagen. More than this it was not 
easy to ascertain. No papers were found, and her cargo, or as 
much of it as remained, was so mixed, and miscellaneous, as 
Saunders called it, that no plausible guess could be given as to 
the port where it had been taken in, if indeed it had all been 
received on board at the same place. 

Several of the light sails had evidently been carried off, but 
all the heavy canvas was left on the yards which remained in 
their places. The vessel was large, exceedingly strong, as was 
proved by the fact that she had not bilged in beaching, and ap- 
parently well found. Nothing was wanting to launch her into 
the ocean but machinery and force, and a crew to sail her, 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


181 


when she might have proceeded on her voyage as if nothing 
unusual had occurred. But such a restoration was hopeless, 
and this admirable machine, like a man cut off in his youth and 
vigor, had been cast upon the shores of this inhospitable region 
to moulder where it lay, unless broken up for wood and iron 
by the wanderers of the desert. 

There was no object more likely to awaken melancholy 
ideas in a mind resembling that of Captain Truck than a 
spectacle of this nature. A. fine ship, complete in nearly all 
her parts, virtually uninjured, and yet beyond the chance of 
further usefulness, in his eyes was a picture of the most cruel 
loss. He cared less for the money it had cost than for the 
qualities and properties that were thus destroyed. 

He examined the bottom, which he pronounced capital for 
stowing, and excellent as that of a sea boat ; he admired the 
fastenings ; applied his knife to try the quality of the wood, 
and pronounced the Norway pine of the spars to be almost 
equal to anything that could be found in our own southern 
woods. The rigging, too he regarded as one loves to linger 
over the regretted qualities of a deceased friend. 

The tracks of camels and horses were abundant on the 
sands around the ship, and especially at the bottom of the rude 
staging by which the party had ascended, and which had evident- 
ly been hastily made in order to carry articles from the vessel 
to the backs of the animals that were to bear them into the 
desert. The footprints of men were also to be seen, and there 
was a startling and mournful certainty in distinguishing the 
marks of shoes, as well as those of the naked foot. 

Judging from all these signs, Captain Truck was of opinion 
the wreck must have taken place but two or three days before, 
and that the plunderers had not left the spot many hours. 

“ They probably went off with what they could carry at sun- 
set last evening, and there can be no doubt that before many 
days, they, or others in their places, will be back again. God 
protect the poor fellows who have fallen into this miserable 
» bondage ? What an occasion would there now be to rescue 
one of them, should he happen to be hid near this spot ! ” 

The idea seized the whole party at once, and all eagerly 
turned to examine the high bank, which rose nearly to the sum- 
mit of the masts, in the hope of discovering some concealed 
fugitive. The gentlemen went below again, and Mr. Sharp and 
Mr. Blunt called out in German, and English, and French, to 
invite an^ one who might be secreted to come forth. No sound 
answered these friendly calls. Again Captain Truck went aloft 


182 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


to look into the interior, but he beheld nothing more than the 
broad and unpeopled desert. 

A place where the camels had descended to the beach was 
at no great distance, and thither most of the party proceeded, 
mounting to the level of the plain beyond. In this little ex- 
pedition, Paul Blunt led the advance, and as he rose over the 
brow of the bank, he cocked both barrels of his fowling-piece, 
uncertain what might be encountered. They found, however, a 
silent waste, almost without vegetation, and nearly as trackless 
as the ocean that lay behind them. At the distance of a hun- 
dred rods, an object was just discernible, lying on the plain 
half-buried in sand, and thither the young men expressed a wish 
to go, first calling to those in the ship to send a man aloft to 
give the alarm, in the event of any party of the Mussulmans 
being seen. Mr. Effingham, too, on being told their intention, 
had the precaution to cause Eve and Mademoiselle Viefville to 
get into the cutter, which he manned, and caused to pull over 
the bar, where she lay waiting the issue. 

A camel’s path, of which the tracks were nearly obliter- 
ated by the sands, led to the object ; and after toiling along it, 
the adventurers soon reached the desired spot. It proved to 
be the body of a man who had died by violence. His dress 
and person denoted that of a passenger rather than that of a 
seaman, and he had evidently been dead but a very few hours, 
probably not twelve. The cut of a sabre had cleft his skull. 
Agreeing not to acquaint the ladies with this horrible discovery, 
the body was hastily covered with sand, the pockets of the 
dead man having been first examined ; for, contrary to usage, 
his person had not been stripped. A letter was found, written 
by a wife to her husband, and nothing more. It was in German, 
and its expressions and contents, though simple, were endear- 
ing and natural. It spoke of the traveller’s return ; for she who 
wrote it little thought of the miserable fate that awaited her be- 
loved in this remote desert. 

As nothing else was visible, the party returned hastily to 
the beach, where they found that Captain Truck had ended his 
investigation, and was impatient to return. In the interest of 
the scene the Montauk had disappeared behind a headland, to- 
wards which she had been drifting when they left her. Her 
absence created a general sense of loneliness, and the whole 
party hastened into the jolly-boat, as if fearful of being left. 
When without the bar again, the cutter took in her projper crew, 
and the boats pulled away, leaving the Dane standing on the 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


1 &3 

beach in his solitary desolation — a monument of his own dis- 
aster. 

As they got further from the land the Montauk came in 
sight again, and Captain Truck announced the agreeable in- 
telligence that the jury mainmast was up, and that the ship had an 
after-sail set, diminutive and defective as it might be. Instead 
of heading to the southward, however, as heretofore, Mr. Leach 
was apparently endeavoring to get back again to the north- 
ward of the headland that had shut in the ship, or was trying to 
retrace his steps. Mr. Truck rightly judged that this was 
proof his mate disliked the appearance of the coast astern of 
him, and that he was anxious to get an offing. The captain in 
consequence urged his men to row, and in little more than an 
hour the whole party were on the deck of the Montauk again, 
and the boats were hanging at the davits. 


CHAPTER XVII. 

I boarded the king’s ship ; now on the beak, 

Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin, 

I flam’d amazement. 

Tempest. 

If Captain Truck distrusted the situation of his own ship 
when he saw that the mate had changed her course, he liked it 
still less after he was on board, and had an opportunity to form 
a more correct judgment. The current had set the vessel not 
only to the southward, but inshore, and the send of the ground- 
swell was gradually, but inevitably, heaving her in towards the 
land. At this point the coast was more broken than at the spot 
where the Dane had been wrecked, some signs of trees appear- 
ing, and rocks running off in irregular reefs into the sea. More 
to the south, these rocks were seen without the ship, while 
directly astern they were not half a mile distant. Still the 
wind was favorable, though light and baffling, and Mr. Leach 
had got up every stitch of canvas that circumstances would at 
all allow ; the lead, too, had been tried, and the bottom was 
found to be a hard sand mixed with rocks, and the depth of the 
water such as to admit of anchoring. It was a sign that 
Captain Truck did not absolutely despair after ascertaining all 
these facts, that he caused Mr. Saunders to be summoned ; for 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


184 

as yet, none of those who had been in the boats had break- 
fasted. 

“ Step this way, Mr. Steward,” said the captain ; “ and 
report the state of the coppers. You were rummaging, as usual, 
among the lockers of yonder unhappy Dane, and I desire to 
know what discoveries you have made ! You will please to re- 
collect, that on all public expeditions of this nature, there must 
be no peculation or private journal kept. Did you see any 
stock-fish ? ” 

“ Sir, I should deem this ship disgraced by the admission 
into her pantry of such an article, sir. We have tongues and 
sounds in plenty, Captain Truck, and no gentleman that has 
such diet, need ambition a stock-fish ! ” 

“ I am not quite of your way of thinking ; but the earth is 
not made of stock-fish. Did you happen to fall in with any 
butter ? ” 

“ Some, sir; that is scarcely fit to slush a mast with, and I 
do think, one of the most atrocious cheeses, sir, it was ever my 
bad fortune to meet with. I do not wonder the Africans left 
the wreck.” 

“ You followed their example, of course, Mr. Saunders, and 
left the cheese.” 

“ I followed my own judgment, sir, for I would not stay in 
a ship with such a cheese, Captain Truck, sir, even to have the 
honor of serving under so great a commander as yourself. I 
think it no wonder chat vessel was wrecked ! Even the sharks 
would abandon her. The very thoughts of her impurities, sir, 
make me feel unsettled in the stomach.” 

The captain nodded his head in approbation of this senti- 
ment, called for a coal, and then ordered breakfast. The meal 
was silent, thoughtful, and even sad ; every one was thinking of 
the poor Danes and their sad fate, while they who had been on 
the plain had the additional subject of the murdered man for 
their contemplation. 

“ Is it possible to do nothing to redeem these poor people, 
father, from captivity ? ” Eve at length demanded. 

“ I have been thinking of this, my child ; but I see no other 
method than to acquaint their government of their situation.” 

“ Might we not contribute something from our own means 
to that effect ? Money, I fancy, is the chief thing necessary.” 

The gentlemen looked at each other in approbation, though 
a reluctance to be the first to speak kept most of them silent. 

“ If a hundred pounds, Miss Effingham, will be useful,” 
Sir George Templemore said, after the pause had continued an 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


i8 5 

awkward minute, laying a bank note of that amount on the 
table, “ and you will honor us by becoming the keeper of the 
redemption money, I have great pleasure in making the offer.” 

This was handsomely said, and as Captain Truck after- 
wards declared, handsomely done too, though it was a little 
abrupt, and caused Eve to hesitate and redden. 

“ I shall accept your gift, sir,” she said ; “ and with your 
permission will transfer it to Mr. Effingham, who will better 
know what use to put it to, in order to effect our benevolent 
purpose. I think I can answer for as much more from him- 
self.” 

“You may, with certainty, my dear — and twice as much, 
if necessary. John, this is a proper occasion for your in- 
terference.” 

“ Put me down at what you please,” said John Effingham, 
whose charities in a pecuniary sense were as unlimited, as in 
feeling they were apparently restrained. “ One hundred or one 
thousand, to rescue that poor crew ! ” 

“ I believe, sir, we must all follow so good an example,” 
Mr. Sharp observed ; “ and I sincerely hope that this scheme 
will not prove useless. I think it may be effected by means of 
some of the public agents at Mogadore.” 

Mr. Dodge raised many objections, for it really exceeded 
his means to give so largely, and his character was formed in 
a school too envious and jealous to confess an inferiority Qn a 
point even as worthless as that of money. Indeed, he had so 
long been accustomed to maintain that “ one man was as good 
as another,” in opposition to his senses, that, like most of those 
who belong to this impracticable school, he had tacitly admitted 
in his own mind, the general and vulgar ascendency of mere 
wealth ; and, quite as a matter of course, he was averse to con- 
fessing his own inferiority on a point that he had made to be 
all in all, while loudest in declaiming against any inferiority 
whatever. He walked out of the cabin, therefore, with strong 
heart-burnings and jealousies, because others had presumed to 
give that which it was not really in his power to bestow. 

On the other hand, both Mademoiselle Viefville and Mr. 
Monday manifested the superiority of the opinions in which 
they had been trained. The first quietly handed a Napoleon 
to Mr. Effingham, who took it with as much attention and 
politeness as he received any of the larger contributions ; while 
the latter produced a five-pound note, with a hearty good will 
that redeemed the sin of many a glass of punch in the eyes of 
his companions. 


i86 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


Eve did not dare to look towards Paul Blunt, while this 
collection was making ; but she felt regret that he did not join 
in it. He was silent and thoughtful, and even seemed pained, 
and she wondered if it were possible that one, who certainly 
lived in a style to prove that his income was large, could be so 
thoughtless as to have deprived himself of the means of doing 
that which he so evidently desired to do. But most of the 
company was too well-bred to permit the matter to become 
the subject of conversation, and they soon rose from table in a 
body. The mind of Eve, however, was greatly relieved when 
her father told her % that the young man had put a hundred 
sovereigns in gold into his hands as soon as possible, and that 
he had seconded this offering with another, of embarking for 
Mogadore in person, should they get into the Cape de Verdes, 
or the Canaries, with a view of carrying out the charitable plan 
with the least delay. 

“ He is a noble-hearted young man,” said the pleased 
father, as he communicated this fact to his daughter and cousin ; 
“ and I shall not object to the plan.” 

“ If he offer to quit this ship one minute sooner than is 
necessary, he does, indeed, deserve a statue of gold,” said 
John Effingham ; “for it has all that can attract a young man 
like him, and all too that can awaken his jealousy.” 

“ Cousin Jack ! ” exclaimed Eve reproachfully, quite thrown 
off her guard by the abruptness and plainness of this language. 

The quiet smile of Mr. Effingham proved that he under- 
stood both, but he made no remark. Eve instantly recovered 
her spirits, and angry at herself for the girlish exclamation 
that had escaped her, she turned on her assailant. “ I do not 
know that I ought to be seen in an aside with Mr. John 
Effingham,” she said, “ even when it is sanctioned with the 
presence of my own father.” 

“ And may I ask why so much sudden reserve, my offended 
beauty ? ” 

“ Merely that the report is already active, concerning the 
delicate relation in which we stand towards each other.” 

John Effingham looked surprised, but he suppressed his 
curiosity from a long habit of affecting an indifference he did 
not always feel. The father was less dignified, for he quietly 
demanded an explanation. 

“It would seem,” returned Eve, assuming a solemnity 
suited to a matter of interest, “ that our secret is discovered. 
While we were indulging our curiosity about this unfortunate 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


187 

ship, Mr. Dodge was gratifying the laudable industry of the 
Active Inquirer, by prying into our staterooms.” 

“ This meanness is impossible ! ” exclaimed Mr. Effingham. 

“Nay,” said John, “no meanness is impossible to a dema- 
gogue, — a pretender to things of which he has even no just 
conception, — a man who lives to envy and traduce ; in a word, 
a quasi gentleman. Let us hear what Eve has to say.” 

“ My information is from Ann Sidley, who saw "him in the 
act. Now the kind letter you wrote my father, cousin Jack, 
just before we left London, and which you wrote because you 
would not trust that honest tongue of yours to speak the feel- 
ings of that honest heart, is the subject of my daily study ; not 
on account of its promises, you will believe me, but on account 
of the strong affection it displays to a girl who is not worthy of 
one half you feel and do for her.” 

“ Pshaw ! ” 

“ Well, let it then be pshaw ! I had read that letter this 
very morning, and carelessly left it on my table. This letter 
Mr. Dodge, in his undying desire to lay everything before the 
public, as becomes his high vocation, and as in duty bound, 
has read ; and misconstruing some of the phrases, as will some- 
times happen to a zealous circulator of news, he has drawn the 
conclusion that I am to be made a happy woman as soon as we 
reach America, by being converted from Miss Eve Effingham 
into Mrs. John Effingham.” 

“ Impossible ! No man can be such a fool, or quite so 
great a miscreant ! ” 

“ I should rather think, my child,” added the milder father, 
“ that injustice has been done Mr. Dodge. No person, in the 
least approximating to the station of a gentleman, could even 
think of an act so base as this you mention.” 

“ Oh ! if this be all your objection to the tale,” observed 
the cousin* “ I am ready to swear to its truth. But Eve has 
caught a little of Captain Truck’s spirit of mystifying, and is 
determined to make a character by a bold stroke in the begin- 
ning. She is clever, and in time may rise to be a quiz.” 

“ Thank you for the compliment, cousin Jack, which, how- 
ever, I am forced to disclaim, as I never was more serious in 
my life. That the letter was read, Nanny, who is truth itself, 
affirms she saw. That Mr. Dodge has since been industriously 
circulating the report of my great good fortune, she has heard 
from the mate, who had it from the highest source of informa- 
tion direct, and that such a man would be likely to come to 


1 88 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


such a conclusion, you have only to recall the terms of the let- 
ter yourself, to believe.” 

“There is nothing in my letter to justify any notion so 
silly# 

“ An Active Inquirer might make discoveries you little 
dream of, dear cousin Jack. You speak of its being time to 
cease roving, of settling yourself at last, of never parting, and, 
prodigal as you are, of making Eve the future mistress of your 
fortune. Now to all this, recreant, confess, or I shall never 
again put faith in man.” 

John Effingham made no answer, but the father warmly ex- 
pressed his indignation, that any man of the smallest preten- 
sions to be admitted among gentlemen, should be guilty of an 
act so base. 

“ We can hardly tolerate his presence, John, and it is al- 
most a matter of conscience to send him to Coventry.” 

“ If you entertain such notions of decorum, your wisest way, 
Edward, will be to return to the place whence you have come ; 
for, trust me, you will find scores of such gentlemen where you 
are going ! ” 

“ I shall not allow you to persuade me I know my own 
country so little. Conduct like this will stamp a man with 
disgrace in America as well .as elsewhere.” 

“ Conduct like this would, but it will no longer. The pell- 
mell that rages has brought honorable men into a sad minority, 
and even Mr. Dodge will tell you the majority must rule. Were 
he to publish my letter, a large portion of his readers would 
fancy he was merely asserting the liberty of the press. Heavens 
save us! You have been dreaming abroad, Ned Effingham, 
while your country has retrograded, in all that is respectable 
and good, a century in a dozen years ! 

As this was the usual language of John Effingham, neither 
of his listeners thought much of it, though Mr. Effingham more 
decidedly expressed an intention to cut off even the slight com- 
munication with the offender, he had permitted himself to keep 
up, since they had been on board. 

“Think better of it, dear father,” said Eve; “.for such a 
man is scarcely worthy of even yonr resentment. He is too 
much your inferior in principles, manners, character, station, 
and everything else, to render him of so much account ; and 
then, were we to clear up this masquerade into which the 
chances of a ship have thrown us, we might have our scruples 
concerning others, as well as concerning this wolf in sheep’s 
clothing.” 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


189 

“ Say rather an ass, shaved and painted to resemble a zebra,” 
muttered John. “The fellow has no property as respectable 
as the basest virtue of a wolf.” 

“ He has at least rapacity.” 

“ And can howl in a pack. This much, then, I will concede 
to you ; but I agree with Eve, we must either punish him affirm- 
atively by pulling his ears, or treat him with contempt, which 
is always negative or silent. I wish he had entered the state- 
room of that fine young fellow, Paul Blunt, who is of an age 
and a spirit to give him a lesson that might make a paragraph 
for his Active Inquirer, if not a scissors’ extract of himself.” 

Eve knew that the offender had been there too, but she had 
too much prudence to betray him. 

“ This will only so much the more oblige him,”, she said, 
laughingly ; “for Mr. Blunt, in speaking of the editor of the 
Active Inquirer, said that he had the failing to believe that 
this earth, and all it contained, was created merely to furnish 
materials for newspaper paragraphs.” 

The gentlemen laughed with the amused Eve, and Mr. 
Effingham remarked, that “ there did seem to be men so per- 
fectly selfish, so much devoted to their own interests, and so 
little sensible of the rights and feelings of others, as to mani- 
fest a desire to render the press superior to all other power ; 
“ Not,” he concluded, “ in the way of argument, or as an agent 
of reason, but as a master, coarse, corrupt, tyrannical and vile ; 
the instrument of selfishness, instead of the right, and when 
not employed as the promoter of personal interests, to be em- 
ployed as the tool of personal passions.” 

“ Your father will become a convert to my opinions, Miss 
Effingham,” said John, “and he will not be home a twelve- 
month before he will make the discovery that the government 
is a press-ocracy, and its ministers, self-chosen and usurpers, 
composed of those who have the least at stake, even as to char- 
acter.” 

Mr. Effingham shook his head in dissent, but the conversa- 
tion changed in consequence of a stir in the ship. The air from 
the land had freshened, and even the heavy canvas on which 
the Montauk was now compelled principally to rely, had been''' 
asleep, as mariners term it, or had blown out from the mast, 
where it stood inflated and steady, a proof at sea, where the 
water is always in motion, that the breeze is getting to be fresh. 
Aided by this power, the ship had overcome the united action 
of the heavy ground-swell and of the current, and was stealing 
out from under the land; when the air murmured for an instant, 


190 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


as if about to blow still fresher, and then all the sails flapped. 
The wind had passed away like a bird, and a dark line to sea- 
ward, denoted the approach of the breeze from the ocean. The 
stir in the vessel was occasioned by the preparations to meet 
this change. 

The new wind brought little with it beyond the general 
danger of blowing on shore. The breeze was light, and not 
more than sufficient to force the vessel through the water, in 
her present condition, a mile and a half in the hour, and this 
too in a line nearly parallel with the coast. Captain Truck 
saw therefore at a glance, that he should be compelled to 
anchor. Previously, however, to doing this, he had a long talk 
with his mates, and a boat was lowered. 

The lead was cast, and the bottom was found to be still 
good, though a hard sand, which is not the best holding ground. 

“ A heavy sea would cause the ship to drag,” Captain 
Truck remarked, “ should it come on to blow, and thfe lines of 
dark rocks astern of them would make chips of the Pennsylva- 
nian in an hour, were that great ship to lie on it.” 

He entered the boat, and pulled along the reefs to examine 
an inlet that Mr. Leach reported to have been seen, before he 
got -the ship’s head to the northward. Could an entrance be 
found at this point, the vessel might possibly be carried within 
the reef, and the favorite scheme of the captain’s could be put 
in force, one to which he now attached the highest importance. 
A mile brought the boat up to the inlet, where Mr. Truck found 
the following appearances : The general formation of the coast 
in sight was that of a slight curvature, within which the ship 
had so far drifted as to be materially inside a line drawn from 
headland to headland. There was, consequently, little hope of 
urging a vessel, crippled like the Montauk, against wind, sea? 
and current, out again into the ocean. For about a league 
abreast of the ship the coast was rocky, though low, the rocks 
running off from the shore quite a mile in places, and every- 
where fully half that distance. The formation was irregular, but 
it had the general character of a reef, the position of which was 
marked by breakers, as well as by the black heads of rocks that 
bere and there showed themselves above the water. The inlet 
was narrow, crooked, and so far environed by rocks as to render 
it questionable whether there was a passage at all, though the 
smoothness of the water had raised hopes to that effect in Mr. 
Leach. 

As soon as Captain Truck arrived at the mouth of this pas- 
sage, he felt so much encouraged by the appearance of things 


HOMEWARD BOUA T D. 


J 9i 

that he gave the concerted signal for the ship to veer round and 
to stand to the southward. I his was losing ground in the way 
of offing, but tack the Montauk could not with so little wind, 
and the captain saw by the drift she had made since he left her 
that promptitude was necessary. The ship might anchor off 
the inlet, as well as anywhere else, if reduced to anchoring out- 
side at all, and then there was always the chance of entering. 

As soon as the ship’s head was again to the southward, and 
Captain Truck felt certain that she was lying along the reef at 
a reasonably safe distance, and in as good a direction as he 
could hope for, he commenced his examination. Like a dis- 
creet seaman he pulled off from the rocks to a suitable dis- 
tance, for should an obstacle occur outside, he well knew any 
depth of water further in would be useless. The day was so 
fine, and in the absence of rivers, the ocean so limpid in that 
low latitude, that it was easy to see the bottom at a consider- 
able depth. But to this sense, of course, the captain did not 
trust, for he kept the lead going constantly, although all eyes 
were also employed in searching for rocks. 

The first cast of the lead was in five fathoms, and these 
soundings were held nearly up to the inlet, where the lead 
struck a rock in three fathoms and a half. At this point, then, 
a more careful examination was made, but three and a half was 
the shallowest cast. As the Montauk drew nearly a fathom less 
than this, the cautious old master proceeded closer in. Directly 
in the mouth of the inlet was a large flat rock, that rose nearly 
to the surface of the sea, and which, when the tide was low, was 
probably bare. This rock Captain Truck at first believed 
would defeat his hopes of success, which by this time were 
strong ; but a closer examination showed him that on one side 
of it was a narrow passage, just wide enough to admit a ship. 

From this spot the channel berame crooked, but it was suf- 
ficiently marked by the ripple on the reef ; and after a careful 
investigation, he found it was possible to carry three fathoms 
quite within the reef, where a large space existed that was 
gradually filling up with sand, but which was nearly all covered 
with water when the tide was in, as was now the case, and which 
had channels, as usual, between the banks. Following one of 
these channels a quarter of a mile, he found a basin of four 
fathoms of water, large enough to take a ship in, and, fortu-* 
nately, it was in close proximity to a portion of the reef that was 
always bare, when a heavy sea was not beating over it. Here he 
dropped a buoy, for he had come provided with several frag- 
ments of spars for this purpose ; and, on his return, the channel 


192 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


was similarly marked off, at all the critical points. On the flat 
rock, in the inlet, one of the men was left standing up to his 
waist in the water, it being certain that the tide was falling. 

The boat now returned to the ship, which it met at the dis- 
tance of half a mile from the inlet. The current setting south- 
wardly, her progress had been more rapid than when heading 
north, and her drift had been less towards the land. Still 
there was so little wind, so steady a ground-swell, and it was 
possible to carry so little after-sail, that great doubts were en- 
tertained of being able to weather the rocks sufficiently to turn 
into the inlet. Twenty times in the next half hour was the order 
to let go the anchor, on the point of being given, as the wind 
baffled, and as often was it countermanded, to take advantage of 
its reviving. These were feverish moments, for the ship was now 
so near the reef as to render her situation very insecure in the 
event of the wind’s rising, or of a sea’s getting up, the sand of 
the bottom being too hard to make good holding-ground. Still, 
as there was a possibility, in the present state of the weather, 
of hedging the ship off a mile into the offing, if necessary, Cap- 
tain Truck stood on with a boldness he might not other- 
wise have felt. The anchor hung suspended by a single turn 
of the stopper, ready to drop at a signal, and Mr. Truck stood 
between the knight-heads, watching the slow progress of the 
vessel, and accurately noticing every foot of leeward set she 
made, as compared with the rocks. 

All this time the poor fellow stood in the water, await- 
ing the arrival of his friends, who in their turn, were anx- 
iously watching his features, as they gradually grew more dis- 
tinct. 

“ I see his eyes,” cried the captain cheerily ; “ take a drag 
at the bowlines, and let her head up as much as she will, Mr. 
Leach, and never mind those sham topsails. Take them in at 
once, sir ; they do us, now, more harm than good.” 

The clewline blocks rattled, and the top-gallant sails which 
were made to do the duty of top-sails, but which would hardly 
spread to the lower yards, so as to set on a wind, came rapidly 
in. Five minutes of intense doubt followed, when the captain 
gave the animating order to — 

“ Man the main-clew garnets, boys* and stand by to make 
^ a run of it ! ” 

. This was understood to be a sign that the ship was far 
enough to windward, and the command to “ in mainsail,” which 
soon succeeded, was received with a shout. 

“ Hard up with the helm, and stand by to lay the fore-yard 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


193 

square,” cried Captain Truck, rubbing his hands. “ Look that 
both bovvers are clear for a run ; and you, Toast, bring me the 
brightest coal in the galley.” 

The movements of the Montauk were necessarily slow ; but 
she obeyed her helm, and fell off until her bows pointed in to- 
wards the sailor in the water. This fine fellow, the moment 
he saw the ship approaching, waded to the verge of the rock, 
where it went off perpendicularly to the bottom, and waved 
to them to come on without fear. 

“ Come within ten feet of me,” he shouted. “ There is 
nothing to spare on the other side.” 

As the captain was prepared for this, the ship was steered 
accordingly, and as she hove slowly past on the rising and fall- 
ing water, a rope was thrown to the man, who was hauled on 
board. 

“ Port ! ” cried the captain, as soon as the rock was passed ; 
“ port your helm, sir, and stand for the first buoy.” 

In this manner the Montauk drove slowly but steadily on, 
until she had reached the basin, where one anchor was let go 
almost as soon as she entered. The chain was paid out until 
the vessel was forced over to some distance, and then the other 
bower was dropped. The fore-sail was hauled up and handed, 
and chain was given the ship, which was pronounced to be se- 
curely moored. 

“ Now,” cried the captain, all his anxiety ceasing with the 
responsibility, “ I expect to be made a member of the New 
York Philosophical Society at least, which is learned company 
for a man who has never been at college, for discovering a port 
on the coast of Africa, which harbor, ladies and gentlemen, 
without too much vanity, I hope to be permitted to call Port 
Truck. If Mr. Dodge, however, should think this too anti- 
republican, we will compromise the matter by calling it Port 
Truck and Dodge ; or the town that no doubt will sooner or 
later arise on its banks, may be called Dodgeborough, and I 
will keep the harbor to myself.” 

“ Should Mr. Dodge consent to this arrangement, he will 
render himself liable to the charge of aristocracy,” said Mr. 
Sharp ; for as all felt relieved by finding themselves in a place 
of security, so all felt disposed to join in the pleasantry. “ I 
dare say his modesty would prevent his consenting to the 
plan.” 

“ Why, gentlemen,” returned the subject of these remarks, 
“ I do not know that we are to refuse honors that are fairly 
imposed on us by the popular voice ; and the practice of nam* 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


194 

ing towns and counties after distinguished citizens, is by no 
means uncommon with us. A few of my own neighbors have 
been disposed to honor me in this way already, and my paper 
is issued from a hamlet that certainly does bear my own un- 
worthy name. So you perceive there will be no novelty in the 
appellation.” 

“ I would have made oath to it,” cried the captain, “ from 
your well-established humility. Is the place as large as Lon- 
don ? ” 

“ It can boast of little more than my own office, a tavern, a 
store, and a blacksmith’s shop, captain, as yet ; but Rome was 
not built in a day.” 

“ Your neighbors, sir, must be people of extraordinary 
discernment ; but the name ! ” 

“ That is not absolutely decided. At first it was called 
Dodgetown, but this did not last long, being thought vulgar 
and commonplace. Six or eight weeks afterwards, we — ” 

“ We, Mr. Dodge ! ” 

“ I mean the people, sir, — I am so much accustomed to 
connect myself with the people, that whatever they do, I think 
I had a hand in.” 

“ And very properly, sir,” observed John Effingham, “ as 
probably without you, there would have been no people at all.” 

“ What may be the population of Dodgetown, sir ? ” asked 
the persevering captain, on this hint. 

“ At the census of January, it was seventeen; but by the 
census of March, there were eighteen. I have made a calcula- 
tion that shows, if we go on at this rate, or by arithmetical 
progression, it wftl be a hundred in about ten years which will 
be a very respectable population for a country place. I beg 
pardon, sir, the people six or eight weeks afterwards, altered 
the name to- Dodgeborough ; but a new family coming in that 
summer, a party was got up to change it to Dodge-ville, a name 
that was immensely popular, as ville means city in Latin ; but 
it must be owned the people like change, or rotation in names, 
as well as in office, and they called the place Butterfield Hol- 
low, for a whole month, after the new inhabitant, whose name 
is Butterfield. He moved away in the fall ; and so, after try- 
ing Belindy, ( A?iglice Belinda,) Nineveh, Grand Cairo, and 
Pumpkin Valley, they made me the offer to restore the ancient 
name, provided some addendum more noble and proper could 
be found than town, or ville, or borough ; it is not yet deter- 
mined Vv'hat it shall be, but I believe we shall finally settle 
down in Dodgeople, or Dodgeopolis.” 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


1 9S 

“ For the season ; and a very good name it will prove for a 
short cruise, I make no question. The Butterfield Hollow was 
a little like rotation in office, in truth, sir.” 

“ I didn’t like it, captain, so I gave Squire Butterfield to 
understand, privately ; for as he had a majority with him, I 
didn’t approve of speaking too strongly on the subject. As 
soon as I got him out of the tavern, however, the current set 
the other way.” 

“ You fairly uncorked him ! ” 

“ That I did, and no one ever heard of him, or of his hollow, 
after his retreat. There are a few discontented and arrogant 
innovators, who affect to call the place by its old name of Mor- 
ton ; but these are the mere vassals of a man who once owned 
the patent, and who has now been dead these forty years. We 
are not the people to keep his old musty name, or to honor dry 
bones.” 

“ Served him right, sir, and like men of spirit ! If he wants 
a place called after himself, let him live, like other people. A 
dead man has no occasion for a name, and there should be a 
law passed, that when a man slips his cables, he should be- 
queath his name to some honest fellow who has a worse one. 
It might be well to compel all great men in particular, to leave 
their renown to those who cannot get any for themselves.” 

“ I will venture to suggest an improvement on the name, if 
Mr. Dodge will permit me,” said Mr. Sharp, who had been an 
amused listener to the short dialogne. Dodgeople is a little 
short, and may be offensive by its brusquerie , By inserting a 
single letter, it will become Dodge-people ; or, there is the 
alternative of Dodge-adrianople, which will be a truly sonorous 
and republican title. Adrian was an emperor, and even Mr. 
Dodge might not disdain the conjunction.” 

By this time, the editor of the Active Inquirer began to be 
extremely eljvated — for this was assailing him on his weakest 
side — and he laughed and rubbed his hands, as if he thought 
the joke particularly pleasant. This person had also a 
peculiarity of judgment that was singularly in opposition to all 
his open professions, a peculiarity, however, that belongs rather 
to his class than to the individual member of it. Ultra as a 
democrat and an American, Mr. Dodge had a sneaking predi- 
lection in favor of foreign opinions. Although practice had 
made him intimately acquainted with all the frauds, deceptions, 
and vileness of the ordinary arts of paragraph-making, he never 
failed to believe religiously in the veracity, judgment, good 
faith, honesty and talents of anything that was imported in the 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


196 

form of types. He had been weekly, for years, accusing his 
nearest brother of the craft, of lying, and he could not be 
altogether ignorant of his own propensity in the same way ; 
but, notwithstanding all this experience in the secrets of the 
trade, whatever reached him from a European journal, he im- 
plicitly swallowed whole. One, who knew little of the man, 
might have supposed he feigned credulity to answer his own 
purposes ; but this would be doing injustice to his faith, which 
was perfect, being based on that provincial admiration, and 
provincial ignorance, that caused the countryman, who went to 
London for the first time, to express astonishment at find- 
ing the king a man. As was due to his colonial origin, his 
secret awe and reverence for an Englishman was exactly in pro- 
portion to his protestation of love for. the people, and his 
deference for rank was graduated on a scale suited to the heart- 
burning and jealousies he entertained for all whom he felt to 
be his superiors. Indeed, one was the cause of the other ; 
for they who really are indifferent to their own social position, 
are usually equally indifferent to that of others, so long as 
they are not made to feel the difference by direct assumptions 
of superiority. 

When Mr. Sharp, whom even M. Dodge had discovered to 
be a gentleman, — and an English gentleman of course, — entered 
into the trifling of the moment, therefore, so far from detect- 
ing the mystification, the latter was disposed to believe himself 
a subject of interest with this person, against whose exclusive- 
ness and haughty reserve, notwithstanding, he had been mak- 
ing side-hits ever since the ship had sailed. But the avidity 
with which the Americans of Mr. Dodge’s temperament are 
apt to swallow the crumbs of flattery that fall from the English- 
man’s table, is matter of history, and the editor himself was 
never so happy as when he could lay hold of a paragraph to 
republish, in which a few words of comfort were doled out by 
the condescending mother to the never-dying 1 faith of the 
daughter. So far, therefore, from taking umbrage at what had 
been said, he continued the subject long after the captain had 
gone to his duty, and with so much perseverance that Paul 
Blunt, as soon as Mr. Sharp escaped, took an occasion to 
compliment that gentleman on his growing intimacy with the 
refined and single-minded champion of the people. The other 
admitted his indiscretion ; and if the affair had no other con- 
sequences, it afforded these two fine young men a moment’s 
merriment, at a time when anxiety had been fast getting the 
ascendency over their more cheerful feelings. When they 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


1 97 

endeavored to make Miss Effinghan share in the amusement, 
however, that young lady heard them with gravity ; for the 
meanness of the act discovered by Nanny Sidley, had indisposed 
her to treat the subject of their comments with the familiarity 
of even ridicule. Perceiving this, through unable to account 
for it, the gentlemen changed the discourse, and soon be- 
came sufficiently grave by contemplating their own condi- 
tion. 

The situation of the Montauk was now certainly one to ex- 
cite uneasiness in those who were little acquainted with the sea, 
as well as in those who were. s It was very much like that for 
which Miss Effingham’s nurse had pined, having many rocks 
and sands in sight, with the land at no great distance. In order 
that the reader may understand it more clearly, we shall de- 
scribe it with greater minuteness. 

To the westward of the ship lay the ocean, broad, smooth, 
glittering, but, heaving and setting, with its eternal breathings, 
which always resemble the respiration of some huge monster. 
Between the vessel and this waste of water, and within three 
hundred feet of the first, stretched an irregular line of ripple, 
dotted here and there with the heads of low naked rocks, mark- 
ing the presence and direction of the reef. 

This was all that would interpose between the basin and 
the raging billows, should another storm occur ; but Captain 
Truck thought this would suffice so far to break the waves as 
to render the anchorage sufficiently secure. Astern of the ship, 
however, a rounded ridge of sand began to appear as the tide 
fell, within forty fathoms of the vessel, and as the bottom was 
hard, and difficult to get an anchor into it, there was the risk of 
dragging on this bank. We say that the bottom was hard, for 
the reader should know that it is not the weight of the anchor 
that secures the ship, but the hold its pointed fluke and broad 
palm get of the ground. The coast itself was distant less than 
a mile, and the entire basin within the reef was fast presenting 
spits of sand, as the water fell on the ebb. Still there were 
many channels, and it would have been possible, for one who 
knew their windings, to have sailed a ship several leagues among 
them, without passing the inlet ; these channels forming a sort 
of intricate network, in every direction from the vessel. 

When Captain Truck had coolly studied all the peculiarities 
of his position, he set about the duty of securing his ship, in 
good earnest. The two light boats were brought under the 
bows, and the stream anchor was lowered, and fastened to a 
spar that lay across both. This anchor was carried to the 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


198 

bank astern, and, by dint of sheer strength, it was laid over its 
summit with a fluke buried to the shank in the hard sand. By 
means of a hawser, and a purchase applied to its end, the men 
on the banks next roused he* chain out, and shackled it to the 
ring. The bight was hove-in, and the ship secured astern, so 
as to prevent a shift of wind, off the land, from forcing her on 
the reef. As no sea could come from this quarter, the single 
anchor and chain were deemed sufficient for this purpose. 
As soon as the boats were at liberty, and before the chain had 
been got ashore, two kedges were carried to the reef, and laid 
among the rocks, in such a w^y that their flukes and stocks 
equally got hold of the projections. To these kedges lighter 
chains were secured ; and when all the bights were hove-in, to 
as equal a strain as possible, Captain Truck pronounced his 
ship in readiness to ride out any gale that would be likely to 
blow. So far as the winds and waves might affect her, the 
Montauk was, in truth, reasonably safe ; for on the side where 
danger was most to be apprehended, she had two bowers down, 
and four parts of smaller chain were attached to the two kedges. 
Nor had Captain Truck fallen into the common error of sup- 
posing he had so much additional strength in his fastenings, by 
simply running the chains through the rings, but he had caused 
each to be separately fastened, both in-board and to the kedges, 
by which means each length of the chain formed a distinct and 
independent fastening of itself. 

So absolute is the sovereignty of a ship, that no one had 
presumed to question the master as to his motives for all this 
extraordinary precaution, though it was the common impression 
that he intended to remain where they were until the wind be- 
came favorable, or at least, until all danger of being thrown 
upon the coast, from the current and the ground-swell, should 
have ceased. Paul Blunt observed, that he fancied it was the 
intention to take advantage of the smooth water within the reef, 
to get up a better and a more efficient set of jury-masts. But 
Captain Truck soon removed all doubts by letting the truth be 
known. While on board the Danish wreck, he had critically 
examined her spars, sails, and rigging, and, though adapted foV 
a ship two hundred tons smaller than the Montauk, he was of 
opinion they might be fitted to the latter vessel, and made to 
answer all the necessary purposes for crossing the ocean, pro- 
vided the Mussulmans and the weather would permit the 
transfer. 

“ We have smooth water and light airs,” he said, when con- 
cluding his explanation, “and the current sets southwardly 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


199 

along this coast ; by means of all our force, hard working, a 
kind Providence, and our own enterprise, I hope yet to see the 
Montauk enter the port of New York, with royals set, and ready 
to carry sail on a wind. The seaman who cannot rig his ship 
with sticks and ropes and blocks enough, might as well stay 
ashore, Mr. Dodge, and publish an hebdomadal. And so, my 
dear young lady, by looking along the land, the day after to- 
morrow, in the northern board here, you may expect to see a 
raft booming down upon you that will cheer your heart, and 
once more raise the hope of a Christmas dinner in New York, 
in all lovers of good fare,” 


# CHAPTER XVIII. 

Here, in the sands, 

Thee I’ll rake up — 

Lear 

His mind made up, his intentions announced, and his ship 
in readiness, Captain Truck gave his orders to proceed with 
promptitude and clearness. The ladies remaining behind, he 
observed that the two Messrs. Effingham, as a matter of course, 
would stay with them as protectors, though little could harm 
them where they were. 

“ I propose to leave the ship in the care of Mr. Blunt,” he 
said, “ for I perceive something about that gentleman which de- 
notes a nautical instinct. If Mr. Sharp choose to remain also, 
your society will be the more agreeable, and in exchange, gen- 
tlemen, I ask the favor of the strong arms' of all your ser- 
vants. Mr. Monday is my man in fair or foul, and so, I flatter 
myself, will be Sir George Templemore ; and as for Mr. Dodge, 
if he stay behind, why the Active Inquirer will miss a notable 
paragraph, for there shall be no historian to the expedition, 
but one of my own appointing. Mr. Saunders shall have the 
honor of cooking for you in the meanwhile, and I propose tak- 
ing every one else to the Dane.” 

As no serious objections could be made to this arrangement, 
within an hour of the time when the ship was fastened, the cut- 
ter, and jolly-boat departed, it being the intention of Captain 
Truck to reach the wreck that evening, in season to have his 


200 


HO ME WARD BOUND. 


sheers ready to raise by daylight in the morning ; for he hoped 
to be back again in the course of the succeeding day. No time 
was to be lost, he knew, the return of the Arabs being hourly 
expected, and the tranquillity of the open sea being at all times 
a matter of the greatest uncertainty. With the declared view of 
making quick work, and with the secret apprehension of a 
struggle with the owners of the country, the captain took with 
him every officer and man on the ship that could possibly be 
spared, and as many of the passengers as he thought might be 
useful. As numbers might be important in the way of intimi- 
dation, he cared almost as much for appearances as for any- 
thing else, or certainly he would not have deemed the presence 
of Mr. Dodge of any great moment ; for to own the truth, he 
expected the editor of the Active Inquirer would prove the 
quality implied by the first word of the title of his journal, as 
much in any other way as in fighting. 

Neither provisions nor water, beyond what might be nec- 
essary in pulling to the wreck, nor ropes, nor blocks nor any- 
thing but arms and ammunition, were taken in the boats ; for 
the examination of the morning had shown the captain, that, 
notwithstanding so much had been plundered, a sufficiency still 
remained in the stranded vessel. Indeed, the fact that so 
much had been left was one of his reasons for hastening off 
himself, as he deemed it certain that they who had taken away 
what was gone, would soon return for the remainder. The 
fowling-pieces and pistols, with all the powder and ball in the 
ship, were taken : a light gun that was on board, for the. pur- 
pose of awaking sleepy pilots, being left loaded, with the inten- 
tion of serving for a signal of alarm, should any material 
change occur in the situation of the ship. 

The party included thirty men, and as most had firearms 
of one sort or another, they pulled out of the inlet with spirit 
and great confidence in their eventual success. The boats 
were crowded, it is true, but there w r as room to row, and the 
launch had been left in its place on deck, because it was known 
that two boats were to be found in the wreck, one of which 
was large : in short, as Captain Truck had meditated this ex- 
pedient from the moment he ascertained the situation of the 
Dane, he now set about carrying it into effect with method and 
discrimination. We shall 'first accompany him on his way, 
leaving the small party in the Montauk for our future attention 
in another chapter. 

The distance between the two vessels was about four leagues, 
and a headland intervening, those in the boats in less than an 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


201 


hour lost sight of their own ship, as she lay shorn of her pride 
anchored within the reef. At almost the same moment, the 
wreck came into view, and Captain Truck applied his glass 
with great interest, in order to ascertain the state of things in 
that direction. All was tranquil — no signs of any one having 
visited the spot since morning being visible. This intelligence 
was given to the people, who pulled at their oars the more 
willingly under the stimulus of probable success, driving the 
boats ahead with increasing velocity. 

The sun was still some distance above the horizon, when 
the cutter and jolly-boat rowed through the narrow channel 
astern of the wreck, and brought up, as before, by the side of 
the rocks. Leaping ashore, Captain Truck led the way to the 
vessel, and, in five minutes, he was seen in the forward cross- 
trees, examining the plain with his glass. All was as solitary 
and deserted as when before seen, and the order was immedi- 
ately given to commence operations without delay. 

A gang of the best seamen got on the spare topmast and 
lower-yard of the Dane, and set about fitting a pair of sheers, 
a job that would be likely to occupy them several hours. Mr. 
Leach led a party up forward, and the second mate went up 
with another further aft, each proceeding to send down its re- 
spective top-gallant-mast, top-sail-yard, and top-mast ; while 
Captain Truck, from the deck, superintended the same work 
on the mizen-mast. As the men worked with spirit, and a 
strong party remained below to give the drags, and to come 
up the lanyards, spar come down after spar with rapidity, and 
just as the sun dipped into the ocean to the westward, every- 
thing but the lower-masts was lying on the sands, alongside of 
the ship ; nothing having been permitted to touch the decks in 
descending. Previously, however, to sending down the lower- 
yards, the launch had been lifted from its bed and landed also 
by the side of the vessel. 

All hands were now mustered on the sands, and the boat 
was launched, an operation of some delicacy, as heavy rollers 
were occasionally coming in. As soon as it floated, his power- 
ful auxiliary was swept up to the rocks, and then the men began 
to load it with the standing rigging and the sails, the latter 
having been unbent, as fast as each spar came down. Two 
kedges were found, and a hawser was bent to one, when the 
launch was carried outside of the bar and anchored. Lines 
being brought in, the yards were hauled out to the same place, 
and strongly lashed together for the night. A great deal of 
running rigging, many blocks, and divers other small articles, 


202 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


were put into the boat of the Montauk, and the jolly-boat of 
the wreck, which was still hanging at her stern, was also lowered 
and got into the water. With these acquisitions, the party had 
now four boats, one of which was heavy and capable of carry- 
ing a considerable freight. 

By this time it was so late and so dark, that Captain Truck 
determined to suspend his labors until morning. In the course 
of a few hours of active toil, he had secured all the yards, the 
sails, the standing and running rigging, the boats, and many of 
the minor articles of the Dane ; and nothing of essential im- 
portance remained, but the three lower masts. These, it is 
true, were all in all to him, for without them he would be but 
little better off than he was before, since his own ship had spare 
canvas and spare yards enough to make a respectable show 
above the foundation. This foundation, however, was the 
great requisite, and his principal motive in taking the other 
things, was to have a better fit than could be obtained by using 
spars and sails that were not intended to go together. 

At eight o’clock, the people got their suppers, and prepared 
to turn in for the night. Some conversation passed between 
Captain Truck and his mates, concerning the manner of dis- 
posing of the men while they slept, which resulted in the for- 
mer’s keeping a well-armed party of ten with him in the ship, 
while the remainder were put in the boats, all of which were 
fastened to the launch, as she lay anchored off the bar. Here 
they made beds of the sails, and, setting a watch, the greater 
portion of both gangs were soon as quietly asleep as if lying in 
their own berths on board the Montauk. Not so with Captain 
Truck and his mates. They walked the deck of the Dane fully 
an hour after the men were silent, and for some time after Mr. 
Monday had finished the bottle of wine he had taken the pre- 
caution to bring with him from the packet, and had bestowed 
his person among some old sails in the cabin. The night was 
a bright starlight, but the moon was not to be expected until 
near morning. The wind came crff the sands of the interior in 
hot puffs, but so lightly as to sound, that it breathed past them 
like the sighings of the desert. 

“ It is lucky, Mr. Leach,” said the Captain, continuing the 
discourse he had been holding with his mate in a low voice, 
under the sense of the insecurity of their situation ; “ it is lucky, 
Mr. Leach, that we got out the stream anchor astern, else we 
should have had the ship rubbing her copper against the cor- 
ners of the rocks. This air seems light, but under all her can- 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


203 


vas, the Montauk would soon flap her way out from this coast, 
if all were ready.” 

“ Ay, ay, sir, if all were ready ! ” repeated Mr. Leach, as if 
he knew how much honest labor was to be expended before 
that happy moment could arrive. 

“ If all were ready. I think we may be able to whip these 
three sticks out of this fellow by breakfast-time in the morn- 
ing, and then a couple of hours will answer for the raft ; after 
which, a pull of six or eight more will take us back to our own 
craft.” 

“ If all goes well, it may be done, sir.” 

“ Well or ill, it must be done. We are not in a situation to 
play at jack-straws ! ” 

“ I hope it may be done, sir.” 

“ Mr. Leach ! ” 

“ Captain Truck ! ” 

“We are in ad — — le category, sir, if the truth must be 
spoken.” 

“ That is a word I am not much acquainted with, but we 
have an awkward berth of it here, if that be what you mean ! ” 

A long pause, during which these two seamen, one of whom 
was old, the other young, paced the deck diligently. 

“ Mr. Leach ! ” 

“ Captain Truck ! ” 

“ Do you ever pray ? ” 

“ I have done such a thing in my time, sir ; but, since I 
have sailed with you, I have been taught to work first and pray 
afterwards ; and when the difficulty has been gotten over by 
the work, the prayers have commonly seemed surplusage.” 

“You should take to your thanksgivings. I think your 
grandfather was a parson, Leach.” 

“ Yes’, he was, sir, and I have been told your father followed 
the same trade.” 

“ You have been told the truth, Mr. Leach. My father was 
as meek, and pious, and humble a Christian as ever thumped a 
pulpit. A poor man, and, if truth must be spoken, a poor 
preacher too ; but a zealous one, and thoroughly devout. I 
ran away from him at twelve, and never passed a week at a 
time under his roof afterwards. He could not do much for 
me, for he had , little education and no money, and, I believe, 
carried on the business pretty much by faith. He was a good 
man, Leach, notwithstanding there might be a little of a take- 
in for such a person to set up as a teacher ; and, as for my 


204 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


mother, if there ever was a pure spirit on earth it was in her 
body ! ” 

“ Ay, that is the way commonly with the mothers, sir.” 

“ She taught me to pray,” added the captain, speaking a 
little thick, “but since I’ve been in this London line, to own 
the truth, I find but little time for anything but hard work, 
until, for want of practice, praying has got to be among the 
hardest things I can turn my hand to.” 

“ That is the way with all of us ; it is my opinion, Captain 
Truck, these London and Liverpool liners will have a good 
many lost souls to answer for.” 

“Ay, ay, if we could put it on them, it would do well 
enough ; but my honest old father always maintained, that 
every man must stand in the gap left by his own sins ; though 
he did assert, also that we were all fore-ordained to shape our 
courses starboard or port, even before we were launched.” 

“ That doctrine makes an easy tide’s-way of life ; for I see 
no great use in a man’s carrying sail and jamming himself up 
in the wind, to claw off immoralities, when he knows he is to 
fetch up upon them after all his pains.” 

“ I have worked all sorts of traverses to get hold of this 
matter, and never could make anything of it. It is harder than 
logarithms. If my father had been the only one to teach it, I 
should have thought less about it, for he was no scholar, and 
might have been paying it out just in the way of business ; but 
then my mother believed it, body and soul, and she was too 
good a woman to stick long to -a course that had not truth to 
back it.” 

“ Why not believe it heartily, sir, and let the wheel fly ? 
One gets to the end of the v’y’ge on this tack as well as on an- 
other.” 

“ There is no great difficulty in working up to or even 
through the passage of death, Leach, but the great point is to 
know the port we are to moor in finally. My mother taught me 
to pray, and when I was ten I had underrun all the Command- 
ments, knew the Lord’s Creed and the Apostles’ Prayer, and 
had made a handsome slant into the Catechism ; but, dear me, 
dear me, it has all oozed out of me, like the warmth from a 
Greenlander.” 

“ Folks were better educated in your time, Captain Truck, 
than they are nowadays, by all I can learn.” 

“ No doubt of that in the world. In my time yonkers were 
taught respect for their betters, and forage, and their Catechism, 
and piety, and the Apostles’ Prayer, and all those sort of things 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


205 

But America has fallen astern sadly in manners within the last 
fifty years. I do not flatter myself with being as good as I was 
when under my excellent dear mother’s command, but there are 
worse men in the world, and out of Newgate, too, than John 
Truck. Now, in the way . of vices, Leach, I never swear.” 

“ Not you sir; and Mr. Monday never drinks.” 

As the protestation of sobriety on the part of their passen- 
ger had got to be a joke with the officers' and men of the ship, 
Captain Truck had no difficulty in understanding his mate, and 
though nettled at a retort that was like usurping his own right 
to the exclusive quizzing of the vessel, he was in a mood much 
too sentimental and reflecting to be angry. After a moment’s 
pause, he resumed the dialogue, as if nothing had been said to 
disturb its harmony. 

“ No, I never swear ; or, if I do, it is in a small gentlemanly 
way, and with none of your foul-mouthed oaths, such as are 
used by the horse-jockeys that formerly sailed out of the river.” 

“ Were they hard swearers ? ” 

“ Is a nor’wester a hard wind ? Those fellows, after they 
have been choked off and jammed by the religion ashore for a 
month or two, would break out like a hurricane when they had 
made an offing, and were once fairly out of hearing of the par- 
sons and deacons. It is said that old Joe Bunk began an oath 
on the bar that he did not get to the end of until his brig was 
off Montauk. I have my doubts, Leach, if anything be gained 
by screwing down religion and morals, like a cotton bale, as is 
practised in and about the river ! ” 

“ A good many begin to be of the same way of thinking ; 
for when our people do break out, it is like the small-pox ! ” 

“ I am an advocate for education ; nor do I think I was 
taught in my own case more than was reasonable. I think even 
a prayer is of more use to a ship-master than Latin, and I often 
have, even now, recourse to one, though it may not be exactly 
in Scripture language. I seldom want a wind without praying 
for it, mentally, as it might be ; and as for the rheum atis’, I am 
always praying to be rid of it, when I’m not cursing it starboard 
and larboard. Has it never struck you that the world is less 
moral since steamboats were introduced than formerly ? ” 

“The boats date from before, my birth sir.” 

“ Very true — you are but a boy. Mankind appear to be 
hurried, and no one likes to stop to pray, or to foot up his sins, 
as used to be the case. Life is like a passage at sea. We feel 
our way cautiously until off soundings on our own coast, and 
then we have an easy time of it in the deep water ; but when 


2o6 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


we get near the shoals again, we take out the lead, and mind a 
little how we steer. . It is the going off and coming on the 
coast, that gives us all the trouble.” 

“ You had some object in view, Captain Truck, when you 
asked me if I ever prayed ! ” 

“ Certain. If I were to set to work to pray myself just now, 
it would be for smooth water to-morrow, that we may have a 
good time in towing the raft to the ship — hist ! Leach, did you 
hear nothing ? ” 

“ There was a sound different from what is common in the 
air from the land ! It is probably some savage beast, for Africa 
is full of them.” 

“ I think we might manage a lion from this fortress. Un- 
less the fellow found the stage, he could hardly board us ; and 
a plank or two thrown from that, would make a draw-bridge of 
it at once. Look yonder ! there is something moving on the 
bank or my eyes are two jewel-blocks.” 

Mr. Leach looked in the required direction, and he, too, 
fancied he saw something in motion on the margin of the bank. 
At the point where the wreck lay, the beach was far from wide, 
and her flying jib-boom, which was still out, projected so near 
the low acclivity, where the coast rose to the level of the desert, as 
to come within ten feet of the bushes by which the latter was 
fringed. Although the spar had drooped a little in consequence 
of having lost the support of the stays, its end was still suffi- 
ciently high to rise above the leaves, and to permit one seated 
on it to overlook the plain, as well as the starlight would allow. 
Believing the duty to be important, Captain Truck, first giving 
orders to Mr Leach, as to the mode of alarming the men, 
should it become necessary, went cautiously out on the bow- 
sprit, and thence to the foot ropes, to the further extremity of 
the booms. As this was done with the steadiness of a seaman, 
and with the utmost care to prevent discovery, he was soon 
stretched on the spar, balancing his body by his legs beneath, 
and casting eager glances about, though prevented by the ob- 
scurity from seeing either far orrery distinctly. 

After lying in this position a minute, Captain Truck dis- 
covered an object on the plains, at the distance of a hundred 
yards from the bushes, that was evidently in motion. He 
was now all watchfulness, for, had he not seen the proofs that 
the Arabs or Moors had already been at the wreck, he knew 
that parties of them were constantly hovering along the coast, 
especially after every heavy gale that blew from the westward 
in hope of booty. As all his own people were asleep, the mates 


.. HOMEWARD BOUND . 


207 


excepted, and the boats could just be discovered by himself, 
who knew their position, he was in hopes that, should any of 
the barbarians be near, the presence of his own party could 
hardly be known. It is true, the alteration in the appearance 
of the wreck, by the removal of the spars, must strike any one 
who had seen it before ; but this change might have been made 
by another party of marauders, or those who had now come, if 
any there were, might see the vessel fof the first time. 

While such thoughts were rapidly glancing through .his 
mind, the reader will readily imagine that the worthy master 
was not altogether at his ease. Still he was cool, and, as he 
was resolved to fight his way off, even against an army, he 
clung to the spar with a species of physical resolution that 
would have done credit to a tiger. The object on the plain 
moved once more, and the clouds opening beyond, he plainly 
made out the head and neck of a dromedary. There was but 
one, however ; nor could the most scrupulous examination show 
him a human being. After remaining a quarter of an hour on 
the boom, during all which time the only sounds that w r ere 
heard were the sighings of the night-air, and the sullen and 
steady wash of the surf, Captain Truck came on deck again, 
where he found his mate waiting his report with intense anxiety. 
The former was fully aware of the importance of his discovery, 
but, being a cool man, he had not magnified the danger to 
himself. 

“ The Moors are down on the coast,” he said, in an under- 
tone ; “ but I do not think there can be more than two or three 
of them at the most ; probably spies or scouts ; and, could we 
seize them, we may gain a few hours on their comrades, which 
will be all we want ; after which they shall be welcome to the 
salt and the other dunnage of the poor Dane. Leach, are you 
the man to stand by me in this affair ? ” 

“ Have I ever failed you, Captain Truck, that you put the 
question ? ” 

“ That you have never, my fine fellow ; give me a squeeze 
of your honest hand, and let there be a pledge of life or death 
in it. 

The mate met the iron grasp of his commander, and each 
knew that he received an assurance on which he might rely. 

“ Shall I awake the men, Sir ? ” asked Mr. Leach. 

“ Not one of them. Every hour of sleep the people get will 
be a lower mast saved. These sticks that still remain are our 
foundation, and even one of them is of more account to us just 
now, than a fleet of ships would be at another time. Take 


2o8 


HOME WA RD B 0 1 7 ND . 


your arms and follow me ; but first we will give a hint to the 
second mate of what we are about.” 

This officer was asleep on the deck, for he had been so much 
wearied with his great exertions that afternoon as to catch a 
little rest as the sweetest of all gifts. It had been the intention 
of Captain Truck to dismiss him to the boats, but, observing him 
to be overcome with drowsiness, he had permitted him to catch 
a. nap where he lay. The lookout, too, was slumbering under 
the same indulgence ; but both were now awakened, and made 
acquainted with the state of things on shore. 

“Keep your eyes open, but keep a dead silence,” concluded 
Captain Truck ; “ for it is my wish to deceive these scouts, and 
to keep them ignorant of our presence. When I cry out 
‘ Alarm ! ’ you will muster all hands, and clear away for a brush, 
but not before. God bless you, my lads ! mind and keep your 
eyes open. Leach, I am ready.” 

The captain and his companion cautiously descended to the 
sands, and passing astern of the ship, they first took their way 
to the jolly-boat, which lay at the rocks in readiness to carry 
off the two officers to the launch. Here they found the two 
men in charge so soundly asleep, that nothing would have been 
easier than to bind them without giving the alarm. After a 
little hesitation, it was determined to let them dream away their 
sorrows, and to proceed to the spot where the bank was as- 
cended. 

At this place it became necessary to use the greatest pre- 
caution, for it was literally entering the enemy’s country. The 
steepness of the short ascent requiring them to mount nearly 
on their hands and feet, this part of their progress was made 
without much hazard, and the two adventurers stood on the 
plain, sheltered by some bushes. 

“Yonder is the camel,” whispered the captain: “ you see 
his crooked neck, with the head tossing at moments. The fel- 
low is not fifty yards from the body of the poor German ! Now 
let us follow along this line of bushes, and keep a sharp look- 
out for the rider.” 

They proceeded in the manner mentioned, until they came 
to a point where the bushes ceased, and there was an opening 
that overlooked the beach quite near the wreck. 

“ Do you see the boats, Leach, hereaway, in a line with the 
starboard davit of the Dane ? They look like dark spots on the 
water, and an ignorant Arab might be excused for taking them 
for rocks.” 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


209 

“ Except that they rise and fall with the rollers ; he must be 
doubly a Turk who could make such a blunder ! ” 

“ Your wanderers of the desert are not so particular. The 
wreck has certainly undergone some changes since yesterday, 
and I should not wonder if even a Mussulman found them out 
but -” 

The gripe of Mr. Leach, whose fingers almost entered the 
flesh of his arm, and a hand pointed towards the bushes on the 
other side of the opening, silenced the captain’s whisper. A 
human form was seen standing on the fringe of the bank, directly 
opposite the jib-boom. It was swaddled in a sort of cloak, and 
the long musket that was borne in a hollow of an arm, was just 
discernible, diverging from the line of the figure. The Arab, 
for such it could only be, was evidently gazing on the wreck, 
and presently he ventured out more boldly, and stood on the 
spot that was clear of bushes. The deathlike stillness on the 
beach deceived him, and he advanced with less caution towards 
the spot where the two officers were in ambush, still keeping 
his own eye on the ship. A few steps brought him within reach 
of Captain Truck, who drew back his arm until the elbow 
reached his own hip, when he darted it forward, and dealt the 
incautious barbarian a severe blow between the eyes. The Arab 
fell like a slaughtered ox, and before his senses were fairly re- 
covered, he was bound hands and feet, and rolled over the bank 
down upon the beach, with little ceremony, his firearms remain- 
ing with his captors. 

“That lad is in a category,” whispered the captain ; “ it now 
remains to be seen if there is another.” 

A long search was not rewarded with success, and it was 
determined to lead the camel down the path, with a view to 
prevent his being seen by any wanderer in the morning. 

“ If we get the lower masts out betimes,” continued the 
captain, “ these land pirates will have no beacons in sight to 
steer by, and, in a country in which one grain of sand is so 
much like another, they might hunt a week before they made a 
happy landfall.” 

The approach of the two towards the camel was made with 
less caution than usual, the success of their enterprise throwing 
them off their guard, and exciting their spirits. They believed, 
in short, that their captive was either a solitary wanderer, or 
that he had been sent ahead as a scout, by some party that 
would be likely to follow in the morning. 

“ We must be up and at work before the sun, Mr. Leach,” 
said the captain, speaking clearly, but in a low tone, as they 


210 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


approached the camel. The head of the animal was tossed ; 
then it seemed to snuff the air, and it ga've a shriek. In the 
twinkling of an eye an Arab sprang from the sand, on which 
he had been sleeping, and was on the creature’s back. He 
was seen to look around him, and before the startled mariners 
had time to decide on their course, the beast, which was a 
dromedary trained to speed, was out of sight in the darkness. 
Captain Truck had thrown forward his fowling-piece, but he 
did not fire. 

“ We have no right to shoot the fellow,” he said, “ and our 
hope is now in the distance he will have to ride to join his 
comrades. If we have got a chief, as I suspect, we will make 
a hostage of him, and turn him to as much account as he can 
possibly turn one of his own camels. Depend on it we shall 
see no more of them for several hours, and we will seize the 
opportunity to get a little sleep. A man must have his watch 
below, or he gets to be as dull and as obstinate as a top-maul.” 

The captain having made up his mind to this plan was not 
slow in putting it in execution. Returning to the beach they 
liberated the legs of their prisoner, whom they found lying like 
a log on the sands, and made him mount the staging to the 
deck of the ship. Leading the way into the cabin, Mr. Truck 
examined the fellow by a light, turning him round and com- 
menting on his points very much as he might have done had 
the captive been any other animal of the desert. 

The Arab was a swarthy, sinewy man of forty, with all his fibres 
indurated and worked down to the whip-cord meagrertess and 
rigidity of a racer, his frame presenting a perfect picture of the 
sort of being one would fancy suited to the exhausting motion 
of a dromedary, and to the fare of a desert. He carried a 
formidable knife, in addition to the long musket of which he 
had been deprived, and his principal garment was the coarse 
mantle of camel’s hair, that served equally for cap, coat and 
robe. His wild dark eyes gleamed, as Captain Truck passed 
the lamp before his face, and it was sufficiently apparent that 
he fancied a very serious misfortune had befallen him. As any 
verbal communication was out of the question, ^ome abortive 
attempts were essayed by the two mariners to make themselves 
understood by signs, which, like some men’s reasoning, pro- 
duced results exactly contrary to what had been expected. 

“ Perhaps the poor fellow fancies we mean to eat him, 
Leach,” observed the captain, after trying his skill in panto- 
mime for some time without success ; “ and he has some grounds 
for the idea, as he was felled like an ox that is bound to the 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


21 I 


kitchen. Try and let the miserable wretch understand, at least, 
that we are not cannibals.” 

Hereupon the mate commenced an expressive pantomime, 
which described, with sufficient clearness, the process of skin- 
ning, cutting up, cooking, and eating the carcass of the Arab, 
with the humane intention of throwing a negative over the 
whole proceeding, by a strong sign of dissent at the close ; but 
there are no proper substitutes for the little monosyllables of 
“yes” and “no,” and the meaning of the interpreter got to 
be so confounded that the captain himself was mystified. 

“ D — n it, Leach,” he interrupted, “ the man fancies that 
he is not good eating, you make so many wry and out-of-the- 
way contortions. A sign is a jury-mast for the tongue, and 
every seaman ought to know how to practise them, in case he 
should be wrecked on a savage and unknown coast. Old Joe 
Bunk had a dictionary of them, and in calm weather he used 
to go among his horses and horned cattle, and talk with them 
by the hour. He made a diagram of the language, and had it 
taught to all us younkers who were exposed to the accidents of 
the sea. Now, I will try my hand on this Arab, fori could 
never go to sleep while the honest black imagined we intended 
to breakfast on him.” 

The captain now recommenced his own explanations in the 
language of nature. He too described the process of cooking 
and eating the prisoner — for this he admitted was indispensable 
by way of preface — and then, to show his horror of such an 
act, he gave a very good representation of a process he had 
often witnessed among his seasick passengers, by way of show- 
ing his loathing of cannibalism in general, and of eating this 
Arab in particular. By this time the man was thoroughly alarmed, 
and by way of commentary on the captain’s eloquence, he 
began to utter wailings in his own language, and groans that 
were not to be mistaken. To own the truth, Mr. Truck was a 
good deal mortified with this failure, which, like all other un- 
successful persons, he was ready to ascribe to anybody but 
himself. 

“I begin- to think, Mr. Leach,” he said, “that this fellow 
is too stupid for a spy or a scout, and that, after all, he 
is no more than a driveler who has strayed from his tribe, 
from a want of sense to keep the road in a desert. A man of 
the smallest information must have understood me, and yet 
you perceive by his lamentations and outcries that he knows 
no more what I said than if he were in another parallel of lati- 
tude. The chap has quite mistaken my character ; for if I 


212 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


really did intend to make a beast of myself, and devour my 
species, no one of the smallest knowledge of human nature 
would think I’d begin on a nigger ! What is your opinion of 
the man’s mistake, Mr. Leach ? ” 

“ It is very plain, sir, that he supposes you mean to broil 
him, and then to eat so much of his steaks, that you will be 
compelled to heave up like a marine two hours out ; and, if I 
must say the truth, I think most people would have inferred 
the same thing from your signs, which are as plainly cannibal 
as anything of the sort I ever witnessed.” 

“ And what the devil did he make of yours, Master 
Cookery-Book ? ” cried the captain with some heat. “ Did 
he fancy you meant to mortify the flesh with a fortnight’s fast ? 
No, no, sir ; you are a very respectable first officer, but are no 
more acquainted with Joe Bunk’s principles of signs, than this 
editor here knows of truth and propriety. It is your blunder- 
ing manner of soliloquizing that has set the lad on a wrong 
traverse. He has just grafted your own idea on my communi- 
cation, and has got himself into a category that a book itself 
would not reason him out of, until his fright is passed. Logic 
is thrown away on all ‘ skeary animals,’ said old Joe Bunk. 
Hearkee, Leach, I’ve a mind to set the rascal adrift, condemn- 
ing the gun and the knife for the benefit of the captors. I 
think I should sleep better for the certainty that he was trudg- 
ing along the sand, satisfied he was not to be barbecued in the 
morning.” 

“ There is no use in detaining him, sir, for his messmate, 
who went off on the dromedary, will sail a hundred feet to his 
one, and if an alarm is really to be given to their party, it will 
not come from this chap. He will be unarmed, and by taking 
away his pouch we shall get some ammunition for this gun of 
his, which will throw a shot as far as Queen Anne’s pocket- 
piece. For my part, sir, I think there is no great use in keep- 
ing him, for I do not think he would understand us, if he stayed 
a month, and went to school the whole time.” 

“ You are quite right, and as long as he is among us, we 
shall be liable to unpleasant misconceptions ; so cut his lash- 
ings, and set him adrift, and be d d to him.” 

The mate, who by this time was drowsy, did' as desired, 
and in a moment the Arab was at liberty. At first the poor 
creature did not know what to make of his freedom, but a 
smart application, a posteriori , from the foot of Captain Truck, 
whose humanity was of the rough quality of the seas, soon set 
him in motion up the cabin-ladder. When the two mariners 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


213 


reached the deck, their prisoner was already leaping down the 
staging, and in another minute his active form was obscurely 
seen clambering up the bank, on gaining which he plunged into 
the desert, and was seen no more. 

None but men indurated in their feelings by long exposure 
would be likely to sleep under the. circumstances in which 
these two seamen were placed, but they were both too cool, 
and too much accustomed to arouse themselves on sudden 
alarms, to lose the precious moments in womanish apprehen- 
sions, when they knew that all their physical energies would be 
needed on the morrow, whether the Arabs arrived or not. 
They accordingly regulated the look-outs, gave strong admoni- 
tions of caution to be passed from one to another, and then 
the captain stretched himself in the berth of the poor Dane 
who was now a captive in the desert, while Mr. Leach got into 
the jolly-boat, and was pulled off to the launch. Both were 
sound asleep in less than five minutes after their heads touched 
their temporary pillows. 


CHAPTER XIX. 

Ay, he does well enough, if he be disposed, 

And so do I too ; he does it with a better grace, but 
I do it more natural. 

Twelfth Night. 

The sleep of the weary is sweet. Of all the party that lay 
thus buried in sleep, on the verge of the Great Desert, exposed 
at any moment to an assault from its ruthless and predatory 
occupants, but one bethought him of the danger ; though he 
was, in truth, so little exposed as to have rendered it of less 
moment to himself than to most of the others, had he not been 
the possessor of a fancy that served oftener to lead him astray 
than for any purposes that were useful or pleasing. This per 
son was in one of the boats, and as they lay at a reasonable 
distance from the land, and the barbarians would not probably 
have known how to use any craft had they even possessed one, 
he was consequently safe from everything but a discharge from 
their long muskets. But this remote risk sufficed to keep him 
awake, it being very different things to foster malice, circulate 
gossip, write scurrilous paragraphs, and cant about the people, 




HOMEWARD BOUND. 


•2 14 

and to face a volley of firearms. For the one employment, 
nature, tradition, education, and habit, had expressly fitted Mr. 
Dodge ; while for the other, he. had not the smallest vocation. 
Although Mr. Leach, in setting his lookouts on board the 
boats, had entirely overlooked the editor of the Active Inquirer, 
never before had that vigilant person’s inquiries been more 
active than they were throughout the whole of that long night, 
and twenty times would he have aroused the party on false 
alarms, but for the cool indifference of the phlegmatic seamen, 
to whom the duty more properly belonged. These brave fellows 
knew too well the precious qualities of sleep to allow that of 
their shipmates to be causelessly disturbed by the nervous.ap- 
prehensions of one who carried with him an everlasting stimu- 
lant to fear in the consciousness of demerit. The night passed 
away undisturbed, therefore, nor was the order of the regular 
watch broken until the lookouts in the wteck, agreeably to 
their orders, awoke Captain Truck and his mates. 

It was now precisely at the moment when the first, and 
as it might be the fugitive, rays of the sun glide into the atmos- 
phere, and, to use a quaint expression, “ dilute its darkness.” 
One no longer saw by starlight, or by moonlight, though a little 
of both were still left ; but objects, though indistinct and dusky, 
had their true outlines, while every moment rendered their sur- 
faces more obvious. 

When Captain Truck appeared on deck, his first glance 
was at the ocean ; for, were its tranquillity seriously disturbed, 
it would be a deathblow to all his hopes. Fortunately, in this 
particular, there was no change. 

“ The winds seem to have put themselves out of breath in 
the last gale, Mr. Leach,” he said, “ and we are likely to get 
the spars round as quietly as if they were so many saw-logs 
floated in a mill-pond. Even the ground-swell has lessened, 
and the breakers on the bar look like the ripple of a wash-tub. 
Turn the people up, sir, and let us have a drag at these sticks 
before breakfast or we may have to broil *an Arab yet.” 

Mr. Leach hailed the boats, and ordered them to send their 
gang of laborers on shore. He then gave the accustomed raps 
on the deck, and called “ all hands ” in the ship. In a minute 
the men began to appear, yawning and stretching their arms — for 
no one had thrown aside his clothes — most of them launching 
their sea-jokes right and left, with as much indifference as if they 
lay quietly in the port to which they were bound. After some 
eight or ten minutes to shake themselves, and to get “aired,” 
as Mr. Leach expressed it, the whole party was again mustered 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


2I 5 

on the deck of the Dane, with the exception of a hand or two 
in the launch, and Mr. Dodge. The latter had assumed the 
office of sentinel over the jolly-boat, which, as usual, lay at the 
rocks, to carry such articles off as might be wanted. 

“ Send a hand up into the foretop, Mr. Leach,” said the 
captain, gaping like a greyhound ; “ a fellow with sharp eyes ; 
none of your chaps who read with their noses down in the 
cloudy weather of an almanac; and let him take a look at the 
desert, in search of Arabs.” 

Although the lower rigging was down and safe in the launch, 
a girt-line, or as Captain Truck in the true Doric of his profes- 
sion pronounced it, a “ gunt- line,” was rove at each mast, and a 
man was accordingly hauled up forward as soon as possible. 
As it was still too dusky to distinguish far with accuracy, the 
captain hailed him, and bade him stay where he was until 
ordered down, and to keep a sharp look-out. 

“ We had a visit from one chap in the night,” he added, 
“ and as he was a hungry-looking rascal, he is a greater fool 
than I think him, or he will be back before long, after some of 
the beef and stock-fish of the wreck. Keep a bright look-out.” 

The men, though accustomed to their commander’s manner, 
looked at each other more seriously, glanced around at their 
arms, and then the information produced precisely the effect 
that had been intended, that of inducing them to apply to their 
work with threefold vigor. 

“ Let the boys chew upon that, instead of their tobacco,” 
observed the captain to Mr. Leach, as he hunted for a good 
coal in the galley to light his cigar with. “ I’ll warrant you the 
sheers go up none the slower for the information, desperate 
philosophers as some of these gentry are ! ” 

This prognostic was true enough, for instead of gaping and 
stretching themselves about the deck, as had been the case with 
most of them a minute before, the men' now commenced their 
duty in good earnest, calling to each other to come to the falls 
and the capstan-bars, and to stand by the heels of the sheers. 

“ Heave away ! ” cried the mate, smiling to see how quick 
the captain’s hint had been taken ; “ heave round with a will, 
men, and let us set these legs on end, that they may walk.” 

As the order was obeyed to the letter, the day had not fairly 
opened when the sheers were in their places and secured. 
Every man was all activity, and as their work was directed by 
those whose knowledge was never at fault, a landsman would 
have been surprised at the readiness with which the crew next 
raised a spar as heavy as the mainmast, and had it suspended, 


2l6 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


top and all, in the air, high enough to be borne over the side. 
The lowering was a trifling affair, and the massive stick was 
soon lying at its length on the sands. Captain Truck well 
knew the great importance of this particular spar, for he might 
make out with the part of the foremast that remained in the 
packet, whereas, without this mast he could not possibly rig 
anything of much available use aft. He called out to the men, 
therefore, as he sprang upon the staging, to follow him and to 
launch the spar into the water before they breakfasted. 

“ Let us make sure of this fellow, men,” he added, “ for it is 
our mainstay. With this stick fairly in our raft, we may yet 
make a passage ; no one must think of his teeth till it is out of 
all risk. This stick we must have, if we make war on the Em- 
peror of Morocco for its possession.” 

The people knew the necessity for exertion, and they 
worked accordingly. The top was knocked off, and carried 
down to the water ; the spar was then cut round, and rolled 
after it, not without trouble, however, as the trestle trees were 
left on ; but the descent of the sands favored the labor. When 
on the margin of the sea, by the aid of hand-spikes, the head 
was got afloat, or so nearly so, as to require but little force to 
move it, when a line from the boats was fastened to the outer 
end, and the top was secured alongside. 

“Now, clap your hand-spikes under it, boys, and heave 
away ! ” cried the captain. “ Heave together and keep the 
stick straight — heave, and his head is afloat ! Haul, haul 
away in the boat ! — heave all at once, and as if you were giants ! 
— you gained three feet that tug, my hearties — try him again, 
gentlemen, as you are — and move together, like girls in a 
cotillion — away with it ! What the devil are you staring at, in 
the fore-top there ? Have you nothing better to do than to 
amuse yourself in seeing us heave our insides out ? ” 

The intense interest attached to the securing of this spar 
had extended to the look-out in the top, and instead of keeping 
his eye on the desert, as ordered, he was looking down at the 
party on the beach, and betraying his sympathy in their efforts 
by bending his body, and appearing to heave in common with 
his messmates. Admonished of his neglect by this sharp 
rfebuke, he turned round quickly towards the desert, and gave 
the fearful alarm of “ The Arabs ! ” 

. Every man ceased his work, and the whole were on the 
point of rushing in a body towards their arms, when the greater 
steadiness of Captain Truck prevented it. 

“ Whereaway ? ” he demanded sternly. 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


217 

“ On the most distant hillock of sand, maybe a mile and a 
half inland.” 

“ How do they head ? ” 

“ Dead down upon us, sir.” 

“ How do they travel ? ” 

“ They have camels, and horses : all are mounted, sir.” 

“What is their number ? ” 

The man paused as if to count, and then he called out, — 

“ They are strong-handed, sir ; quite a hundred I think. 
They have brought up, sir, and seem to be sounding about them 
for an anchorage.” 

Captain Truck hesitated, and he looked wistfully at the 
mast. 

“ Boys ! ” said he, shaking his hand over the bit of massive 
wood, with energy, “ this spar is of more importance to us than 
our mother’s milk in infancy. It is our victuals and drink, life 
and hopes. Let us swear we will have it in spite of a thousand 
Arabs. Stoop to your handspikes, and heave at the word — 
heave as if you had a world to move, — heave, men, heave ! ” 

The people obeyed, and the mast advanced more than half 
the necessary distance into the water. But the man now called 
out that the Arabs were advancing swiftly towards the ship. * 

“One more effort, men,” said Captain Truck, reddening in 
the face with anxiety, and throwing down his hat to set the ex- 
ample in person, — “ heave ! ” 

The men hove, and the spar floated. 

“ Now to your arms, boys, and you, sir, in the top, keep 
yourself hid behind the head of the mast. We must be ready 
to show these gentry we are not afraid of them.” A sign of 
the hand told the men in the launch to haul away, and the all- 
important spar floated slowly across the bar, to join the raft. 

The men now hurried up to the ship, a post that Captain 
Truck declared he could maintain against a whole tribe, while 
Mr. Dodge began incontinently to scull the jolly-boat, in the 
best manner he could off to the launch. All remonstrance was 
useless, as he had got as far as the bar before he was perceived. 
Both Sir George Templemore and Mr. Monday loudly de- 
nounced him for deserting the party on the shore in this scanda- 
lous manner, but quite without effect. Mr. Dodge’s skill, unfortu- 
nately for his success, did not quite equal his zeal ; and finding, 
when he got on the bar, that he was unable to keep the boat’s 
head to the sea, or indeed to manage it at all, he fairly jumped 
into the water and swam lustily towards the launch. As he 
was expert at this exercise, he arrived safely, cursing in his 


2l8 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


heart all travelling, the desert, the Arabs, and mankind in gen- 
eral, wishing himself quietly back in Dodgeopolis again, among 
his beloved people. The boat drove upon the sands, of course, 
and was eventually taken care of by two of the Montauk’s 
crew. 

As soon as Captain Truck found himself on the deck of the 
Dane, the arms was distributed among the people. It was 
clearly his policy not to comrhence the war, for he had nothing, 
in an affirmative sense, to gain by it, though, without making 
any professions, his mind was fully made up not to be taken 
alive, as long as there was a possibility of averting such a dis- 
aster. The man aloft gave constant notice of the movements 
of the Arabs, and he soon announced that they had halted at a 
pistol’s shot from the bank, where they were securing their 
camels, and that his first estimate of their force was true. 

In the mean time, Captain Truck was far from satisfied 
with his position. The bank was higher than the deck of the 
ship, and so near it as to render the bulwarks of little use, had 
those of the Dane been of any available thickness, which they 
were not. Then, the position of the ship, lying a little on one 
side, with her bows towards the land, exposed her to being 
swept by raking fire ; a cunning enemy having it in his power, 
by making a cover of the bank, to pick off his men, with little 
or no exposure to himself. The odds were too great to sally 
upon the plain, and although the rocks offered a tolerable 
cover towards the land, they had none towards the ship. Di- 
vide his force he dared not do, — and by abandoning the ship 
he would allow the Arabs to seize her, thus commanding the 
other position, besides the remainder of the stores, which he 
was desirous of securing. 

Men think fast in trying circumstances, and although the 
captain was in a situation so perfectly novel, his practical 
knowledge and great coolness rendered him an invaluable com- 
mander to those under his orders. 

“ I do not' know, gentlemen,” he said, addressing his pas- 
sengers and mates, “that Vattel has laid down any rule to 
govern this case. These Arabs, no doubt, are the lawful 
owners of the country, in one sense ; but it is a desert — and a 
desert, like a sea, is common property for the time being, to 
all who find themselves in it. There are no wreck-masters in 
Africa, and probably no law concerning wrecks, but the law of 
the strongest. We have been driven in here, moreover, by 
stress of weather — and this is a category on which Vattel has 
been very explicit. We have a right to the hospitality of these 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


219 


Arabs, and if it be not freely accorded, d n me, gentlemen, 

but I feel disposed to take just as much of it as I find I shall 
have occasion for ! Mr. Monday, I should like to hear your 
sentiments on this subject.” 

“Why, sir,” returned Mr. Monday, “ I have the greatest 
confidence in your knowledge, Captain Truck, and am equally 
ready for peace or war, although my calling is for the first. I 
should try negotiation to begin with sir, if it be practicable, and 
you will allow me to express an opinion ; after which I would 
offer war.” 

“ I am quite of the same mind, sir ; but in what way are we 
to negotiate with a people we cannot make understand a word 
we say ? It is true, if they were versed in the science of signs, 
one might do something with them ; but I have reason to 
know that they are as stupid as boobies on all such subjects. 
We shall get ourselves into a category at the first protocol , as 
the writers say.” 

Now, Mr. Monday thought there was a language that any 
man might understand, and he was strongly disposed to profit 
by it. In rummaging the wreck, he had discovered a case of 
liquor, besides a cask of Hollands, and he thought an offering 
of these might have the effect to put the Arabs in good humor 
at least. 

“ I have known men, who, treated with dry, in matters of 
trade, were as obstinate as mules, become reasonable and pli- 
able, sir, over a bottle,” he said, after explaining where the 
liquor was to be found ; “ and I think, if we offer the Arabs 
this, after they have been in possession a short .time, we shall 
find them better disposed towards us. If it should not prove 
so, I confess, for one, I should feel less reluctance in shooting 
them than before.” 

“ I have somewhere heard that the Mussulmans never 
drink,” observed Sir George ; “ in which case we shall find our 
offering despised. Then there is the difficulty of a first pos- 
session ; for, if these people are the same as those that were 
here before, Ithey may not thank us for giving them so small a 
part of that, of which they may lay claim to all. I’m very sure, 
were any one to offer me my patent pistols, as a motive for 
letting him carry away my patent razors, or the East India 
dressing-case, or anything else I own, I -should not feel par- 
ticularly obliged to him.” 

“ Capitally put, Sir George, and I should be quite of your 
way of thinking, if I did not believe these Arabs might really 


220 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


be mollified by a little drink. If I had a proper ambassador 
to send with the offering, I would resort to the plan at once.” 

Mr, Monday, after a moment’s hesitation, spiritedly offered, 
to be one of two, to go to the Arabs, with the proposal, for he 
had sufficient penetration to perceive that there was little 
danger of his being seized, while an armed party of so much 
strength remained to be overcome — and he had sufficient 
nerve to encounter the risk. All he asked was a companion, 
and Captain Truck was so much struck with the spirit of the 
volunteer, that he made up his mind to accompany him him- 
self. To this plan, however, both the mates and all the crew, 
stoutly but respectfully objected. They felt his importance 
too much to consent to this exposure, and neither of the mates 
even, would be allowed to go on an expedition of so much 
hazard, without a sufficient motive. They might fight, if they 
pleased, but they should not run into the mouth of the lion 
unarmed and unresisting. 

“ It is of no moment,” said Mr. Monday ; “ I could have 
liked a gentleman for my companion ; but no one of. the brave 
fellows will have any objection to passing an hour in company 
with an Arab Sheik over a bottle. What say you my lads, will 
any one of you volunteer ? ” 

“ Ay, ay, sir ! ” cried a dozen in a breath. 

“This will never do,” interrupted the captain I have 
need of the men, for my heart is still set on these two sticks 
that remain, and we have a head-sea and a stiff breeze to 
struggle with in getting back to the ship. By George, I have 
it ! What do you say to Mr. Dodge for a companion, Mr. 
Monday ? He is used to committees, and likes the service : 
and then he has need of some stimulant, after the ducking he 
has received. Mr. Leach, take a couple of hands, and go off 
in the jolly-boat and bring Mr. Dodge on shore. My compli- 
ments to him, and tell him he has been unanimously chosen 
to a most honorable and lucrative — ay, and a popular employ- 
ment.” 

As this was an order, the mate did not scruple about obey- 
ing it. He was soon afloat, and on his way towards the 
launch. Captain Truck now hailed the top, and inquired what 
the Arabs were about. The answer was satisfactory, as they 
were still busy with their camels and in pitching their tents. 
This did not look much like an immediate war, and bidding the 
man aloft to give timely notice of their approach, Mr. Truck 
fancied he might still have time to shift his sheers, and to whip 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


22 I 


out the mizzen-mast, and he accordingly set about it without 
further delay. 

As every one worked, as it might be for life, in fifteen 
minutes this light spar was suspended in the falls. In ten 
more its heel was clear of the bulwarks, and it was lowered on 
the sands almost by the run. To knock off the top and roll it 
down to the water took but a few minutes longer, and then the 
people were called to their breakfast ; the sentinel aloft re- 
porting that the Arabs were employed in the same manner, and 
in milking their camels. This was a fortunate relief, and 
everybody ate in peace, and in the full assurance that those 
whom they so much distrusted were equally engaged in the 
same pacific manner. 

Neither the Arabs nor the seamen, however, lo$t any un- 
necessary time at the meal. The former were soon reported 
to be coming and going in parties of fifteen or twenty, arriving 
and departing in an eastern direction. Occasionally a single 
runner went or came alone, on a fleet dromedary, as if com- 
munications were held with other bodies which lay deeper in 
the desert. All this intelligence rendered Captain Truck very 
uneasy, and he thought it time seriously to take some decided 
measures to bring this matter to an issue. Still, as time gained 
was all in his favor if improved, he first ordered the men to 
begin to shift the sheers forward, in hopes of being yet able to 
carry off the foremast ; a spar that would be exceedingly useful, 
as it would save the necessity of fishing a new head to the one 
which still stood in the packet. He then went aside with his 
two ambassadors, with a view to give his instructions. 

Mr. Dodge had no sooner found himself safe in the launch 
than he felt his courage revive, and with his courage, his in- 
genuity, self-love and assurance. While in the water, a meeker 
man there was not on earth ; he had even some doubts as to 
the truth of all his favorite notions of liberty and equality, for 
men think fast in danger, and there was an instant when he 
might have been easily persuaded to acknowledge himself a 
demagogue and a hypocrite in his ordinary practices ; one 
whose chief motive was self, and whose besetting passions were 
envy, distrust and malice ; or, in other words, very much the 
creature he was. Shame came next, and he eagerly sought an 
excuse for the want of manliness he had betrayed ; but passing 
over the language he had held in the launch, and the means 
Mr. Leach found to persuade him to land again, we shall give 
his apology in his own words, as he now somewhat hurriedly 
delivered it to Captain Truck, in his own person. 


222 


HOME WARD BOUND. 


“ I must have misunderstood your arrangement, captain,” he 
said ; “ for somehow, though how I do not exactly know — but 
somehow the alarm of the Arabs was no sooner given than I 
felt as if I ought to be in the launch to be at my post ; but I 
suppose it was because I knew that the sails and spars that 
brought us here are mostly there, and that this was the spot to 
be most resolutely defended. I do think, if they had waded 
off to us, I should have fought like a tiger ! ” 

“No doubt you would, my dear sir, and like a wild cat too! 
We all make mistakes in judgment, in war, and in politics, and 
no fact is better known than that the best soldiers in the end 
are they who give a little ground at the first attack. But Mr. 
Leach has explained to you the plan of Mr. Monday, and I rely 
on your spirit and zeal, which there is now an excellent 
opportunity to prove, as before it was only demonstrated.” 

“ If it were only an opportunity of meeting the Arabs sword 
in hand, captain.” 

“ Pooh ! pooh ! my dear friend, take two swords if you 
choose. One who is full of fight can never get the battle on 
his own terms. Fill the Arabs with the schnaps of the poor 
Dane, and if they should make the smallest symptom of moving 
down towards us, I rely on you to give the alarm, in order that 
we may be ready for them. Trust to us for the overture of the 
piece, as I trust to you for the overtures of peace.” 

“ In what way can we possible do this, Mr. Monday ? How 
can we give the alarm in season ? ” 

“ Why,” interposed the unmoved captain, “ you may just 
shoot the sheik, and that will be killing two birds with one 
stone ; you will take your pistols, of course, and blaze away 
upon them, starboard and larboard ; rely on it, we shall hear 
you.” 

“ Of that I make no doubt, but I rather distrust the pru- 
dence of the step. That is, I declare, Mr. Monday, it looks 
awfully like tempting Providence ! I begin to have con- 
scientious scruples. I hope you are quite certain, captain, there 
is nothing in all this against the laws of Africa ? Good moral 
and religious influences are not to be overlooked. My mind is 
quite exercised in the premises ! ” 

“ You are much too conscientious for a diplomatic man,” 
said Mr. Truck, between the puffs at a fresh cigar. “ You need 
not shoot any of the women, and what more does a man want ? 
Come, no more words, but to the duty heartily. Every one ex- 
pects it of you, since no one can do it half so well ; and if you 
ever get back to Dodgeopolis, there will be matter for a para- 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


223 


graph every day of the year for the next six months. If any 
thing serious happen to you, trust to me to do your memory 
justice.” 

“ Captain, captain, this trifling with the future is blasphem- 
ous ! Men seldom talk of death with impunity, and it really 
hurts my feelings to touch on such awful subjects so lightly. I 
will go, for I do not well see how the matter is to be helped ; 
but let us go amicably, and with such presents as will secure a 
good reception and a safe return.” 

“ Mr. Monday takes the liquor-case of the Dane, and you 
are welcome to anything that is left, but the foremast. That 
I shall fight for, even if lions come out of the desert to help 
the Arabs.” 

Mr. Dodge had many more objections, some of which he 
urged openly, and more of which he felt in his inmost spirit. 
But for the unfortunate dive into the water, he certainly would 
have pleaded his immunities as a passenger, and plumply re- 
fused to be put forward on such an occasion ; but he felt that 
he was a disgraced man, and that some decided act of spirit 
was necessary to redeem his character. The neutrality ob- 
served by the Arabs, moreover, greatly encouraged him ; for he 
leaned to an opinion Captain Truck had expressed, that so long 
as a strong-armed party remained in the wreck, the sheik, if a 
man of any moderation and policy, would not proceed to vio- 
lence. 

“You may tell him, gentlemen,” continued Mr. Truck, 
“that as soon as I have whipped the foremast out of the Dane, 
I will evacuate, and leave him the wreck, and all it contains. 
The stick can do him no good, and I want it in my heart’s core. 
Put this matter before him plainly, and there is no doubt we 
shall part 'the best of f rends in the world. Remember one 
thing, however, we shall set about lifting the spar the moment 
you quit us, and should there be any signs of an attack, give us 
notice in season, that we may take to our arms.” 

By this reasoning Mr. Dodge suffered himself to be per- 
suaded to go on the mission, though his ingenuity and fears 
supplied an additional motive that he took very good care not 
to betray. Should there be a battle, he knew he would be ex- 
pected to fight, if he remained with his own party, and if with 
the other, he might plausibly secrete himself until the affair 
was over; for, with a man of his temperament eventual slavery 
had less horrors than immediate death. 

When Mr. Monday and his co-commissioner ascended the 
bank, bearing the case of liquors and a few light offerings, that 


224 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


the latter had found in the wreck, it was just as the crew, as- 
sured that the Arabs still remained tranquil, had seriously set 
about pursuing their great object. On the margin of the plain, 
Captain Truck took his leave of the ambassadors, though he 
remained some time to reconnoitre the appearance of things in 
the wild-looking camp, which was placed within two hundred 
yards of the spot on which he stood. The number of the Arabs 
had not certainly been exaggerated, and what gave him the 
most uneasiness was the fact that parties appeared to be con- 
stantly communicating with more, who probably lay behind a 
ridge of sand that bounded the view less than a mile distant in 
land, as they all went and came in that direction. After wait- 
ing to see his two envoyzs in the very camp, he stationed a look- 
out on the bank, and returned to the wreck, to hurry on the all- 
important work. 

Mr. Monday was the efficient man of the two commissioners, 
so soon as they were fairly embarked in their enterprise. He 
was strong of nerves, and without imagination to fancy dangers 
where they were not very obvious, and had a great faith in the 
pacific virtues of the liquor-case. An Arab advanced to meet 
them, when near the tents ; and although conversation was 
quite out of the question, by pure force of gesticulations, aided 
by the single word “ sheik,” they succeeded in obtaining an 
introduction to that personage. 

The inhabitants of the desert have been so often described 
that we shall assume they are known to our readers, and pro- 
ceed with our narrative the same as if we had to do with Chris- 
tians. Much of what has been written of the hospitality of the 
Arabs, if true of any portion of them, is hardly true of those 
tribes which frequent the Atlantic coast, where the practice of 
wrecking would seem to have produced the same effect on their 
habits and morals that it is known to produce elsewhere. But 
a ship protected by a few weatherworn and stranded mariners, 
and a ship defended by a strong and an armed party, like that 
headed by Captain Truck, presented very different objects to 
the cupidity of these barbarians. They knew the great advant- 
age they possessed by being on their own ground, and were 
content to await events, in preference to risking a doubtful 
contest. Several of the party had been at Mogadore, and other 
parts, and had acquired tolerably accurate ideas of the power 
of vessels ; and as they were confident the men now at work at 
the wreck had not the means of carrying away the cargo, their 
own principal object, curiosity and caution, connected with cer- 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


225 

tain plans that were already laid among their leaders, kept 
them quiet, for the moment at least. 

These people were not so ignorant as to require to be told 
that some other vessel was at no great distance, and their 
scouts had been out in all directions to ascertain the fact, pre- 
viously to taking their ultimate measures ; for the sheik himself 
had some pretty just notions of the force of a vessel of war, 
and of the danger of contending with one. The result of his 
policy, therefore, will better appear in the course of the narra- 
tive. 

The reception of the two envoys of Captain Truck was 
masked by that smiling and courteous politeness which seems 
to diminish as one travels west, and to increase as he goes east- 
ward ; though it was certainly less elaborate than would have 
been found in the palace of an Indian rajah. The sheik was 
not properly a sheik, nor was the party composed of genuine 
Arabs, though we have thus styled them from usage. The 
first, however, was a man in authority, and he and his followers 
possessed enough of the origin and characteristics of the tribes 
east of the Red Sea, to be sufficiently described by the appella- 
tion we have adopted. 

Mr. Monday and Mr. Dodge were invited by signs to be 
seated, and refreshments were offered. As the last were not 
particularly inviting, Mr. Monday was not slow in producing 
his own offering, and in recommending its quality, by setting 
an example of the way in which it ought to be treated. Al- 
though Mussulmans, the hosts did not scruple about tasting the 
cup, and ten minutes of pantomime, potations, and grimaces, 
brought about a species of intimacy between the parties. 

The man who had been so unceremoniously captured the 
previous night by Captain Truck, was now introduced, and 
much curiosity was manifested to know whether his account of 
the disposition in the strangers to eat their fellow-creatures 
was true. The inhabitants of the desert, in the course of ages, 
had gleaned certain accounts of mariners eating their ship- 
mates, from their different captives, and vague traditions to 
that effect existed among them, which the tale of this man had 
revived. Had the sheik kept a journal, like Mr. Dodge, the 
result of these inquiries would probably have been some entries 
concerning the customs and characters of the Americans, that 
were quite as original as those of the editor of the Active In- 
quirer concerning the different nations he had visited. 

Mr. Monday paid great attention to the pantomime of the 
Arab, in which that worthy endeavored to explain the disposi- 


226 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


tion of Captain Truck to make a barbecue of him : when it 
was ended, he gravely informed his companions that the sheik 
had invited them to stay for dinner, — a proposition that he 
was disposed to accept ; but the sensitiveness of Mr. Dodge 
viewed the matter otherwise, for, with a conformity of opinion 
that really said something in favor of the science of signs, he 
arrived at the same conclusion as the poor Arab himself — with 
the material difference, that he fancied that the Arabs were dis- 
posed to make a meal of himself. Mr. Monday, who was a 
hearty beef and brandy personage, scouted the idea, and 
thought the matter settled, by pointing to two or three young 
camels and asking the editor if he thought any man, Turk or 
Christian, would think of eating one so lank, meagre, and 
uninviting, as himself,- when they had so much capital food of 
another sort at their elbow. “ Take your share of the liquor 
while it is passing, man, and set your heart at ease as to the 
dinner, which I make no doubt will be substantial and decent. 
Had I known of the favor intended us, I should have brought 
out the sheik a service of knives and forks from Birmingham ; 
for he really seems a well-disposed and gentleman-like man. 
A very capital fellow I dare say, we shall find him, after he 
has had a few camel’s steaks, and a proper allowance of 
schnaps. Mr. Sheik, I drink your health with all my heart.” 

The accidents of life could scarcely have brought together, 
in circumstances so peculiar, men whose characters were more 
completely the converse of each other then Mr. Monday and 
Mr. Dodge. They were perfect epitomes of two l*irge classes 
in their respective nations, and so diametrically opposed to 
each other, that one could hardly recognize in them scions 
from a common stock. The first was dull, obstinate, straight- 
forward, hearty in his manners, and. not without sincerity, 
thought wily in a bargain, with all his seeming frankness ; the 
last, distrustful, cunning rather than quick of comprehension, 
insincere, fawning when he thought his interests concerned, 
and jealous and detracting at all other times, with a coldness 
of exterior that had at least the merit of appearing to avoid 
deception. Both were violently prejudiced, though in Mr. Mon- 
day, it was the prejudice of old dogmas, in religion, politics, 
and morals ; and in the other, it was the vice of provincialism, 
and an education that was not entirely free from the fanaticism 
of the seventeenth century. One consequence of this dis- 
crepancy of character was a perfectly opposite manner of view- 
ing matters in this interview. While Mr. Monday was disposed 
to take things amicably, Mr. Dodge was all suspicion : and had 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


227 

they then returned to the wreck, the last would have called to 
arms, while the first would have advised Captain Truck to go 
out and visit the sheik, in the manner one would visit a re- 
spectable and agreeable neighbor. 


CHAPTER XX. 


’ Tis of more worth than kingdoms ! far more precious 
Than all the crimson treasures of life’s fountain ! 

Oh, let it not elude thy grasp ! 

Cotton. 

Things were in this state, the sheik and his guests com- 
municating by signs, in such a way as completely to mystify 
each other ; Mr. Monday drinking, Mr. Dodge conjecturing, 
and parties quitting the camp and arriving every ten minutes, 
when an Arab pointed eagerly with his finger in the direction 
of the wreck. The head of the foremast was slowly rising, and 
the look-out in the top was clinging to the spar, which began 
to cant, in order to keep himself from falling. The sheik 
affected to smile ; but he was evidently disturbed, and two or 
three messengers were sent out into the camp. In the mean- 
while, the spar began to lower, and was soon entirely con- 
cealed beneath the bark. 

It was now apparent that the Arabs thought the moment 
had arrived when it was their policy to interfere. The sheik, 
therefore, left his guests to be entertained by two or three others 
who had joined in the potations, and making the best assur- 
ances he could by means of signs, of his continued amity, he left 
the tent. Laying aside all his arms, attended by two or three 
old men like himself, he went boldly to the plank, and de- 
scended quietly to the sands, where he found Captain Truck 
busied in endeavoring to get the spar into the water. The top 
was already afloat, and the stick itself was cut round in the 
right position for rolling, when the foul but grave-looking bar- 
barians appeared among the workmen. As the latter had been 
apprised of their approach, and of the fact of their being un- 
armed, no one left his employment to receive them, with the 
exception of Captain Truck himself. 

“ Bear a hand with the spar, Mr. Leach,” he said, “ while 


228 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


I entertain these gentlemen. It is a good sign that they come 
to us without arms, and it shall never be said that we are be- 
hind them in civility. Half an 'hour will settle our affairs, when 
these gentry are welcome to what will be left of the Dane. — 
Your servant, gentlemen ; I’m glad to see you, and beg the 
honor to shake hands with all of you, from the oldest to the 
youngest.” 

Although the Arabs understood nothing that was said, they 
permitted Captain Truck to give each of them a hearty shake 
of the hand, smiling and muttering their own compliments with 
as much apparent good will as was manifested by the old sea- 
man himself. 

“ God help the Danes, if they have fallen into servitude 
among these blackguards ! ” said the captain, aloud, while he 
was shaking the sheik a second time most cordially by the 
hand, “for a fouler set of thieves I never laid eyes on, Leach. 
Mr. Monday has tried the virtue of the schnaps on them, not- 
withstanding, for the odor of gin is mingled with that of grease, 
about the old scoundrel. — Roll away at the spar, boys ! half-a- 
dozen more such heaves, and you will have him in his native 
element, as the newspapers call it. — I’m glad to see you gentle- 
men ; we are badly off as to chairs, on this beach, but to such 
as we have you are heartily welcome. — Mr. Leach, the Arab 
sheik ; — Arab sheik, Mr. Leach. — On the bank there ? ” 

“ Sir.” 

“ Any movement among the Arabs ? ” 

“ About thirty have just ridden back into the desert, mounted 
on camels, sir ; nothing more.” 

“ No signs of our passengers ? ” 

“ Ay, ay, sir. Here comes Mr. Dodge under full sail, head- 
ing for the bank, as straight as he can lay his course ! ” 

“ Ha ! — Is he pursued ? ” 

The men ceased their work, and glanced aside at their 
arms. 

“ Not at all, sir. Mr. Monday is calling after him, and the 
Arabs seem to be laughing. Mr. Monday is just splicing the 
main-brace with one of the rascals.” 

“ Let the Atlantic ocean, then, look out for itself, for Mr. 
Dodge will be certain to run over it. Heave away, my hearties, 
and the stick will be afloat yet before that gentleman is fairly 
docked.” 

The men worked with good will, but their zeal was far less 
efficient than that of the editor of the Active Inquirer, who now 
broke through the bushes, and plunged down the bank with a 


HOMEWARD BOUA'D . 


229 

velocity which, if continued, would have carried him to Dodge- 
opolis itself within the month. The Arabs started at this sud- 
den apparition, but perceiving that those around them laughed, 
they were di&posed to take the interruption in good part. The 
look-out now announced the approach of Mr. Monday, followed 
by fifty Arabs ; the latter, however, being without arms, and the 
former without his hat. The moment was critical, but the 
steadiness of Captain Truck did not desert him. Issuing a 
rapid order to the second mate, with a small party previously 
selected for that duty, to stand by the arms, he urged the rest 
of the people to renewed exertions. Just as this was done, Mr. 
Monday appeared on the bank, with a bottle in one hand and 
a glass in the other, calling aloud to Mr. Dodge to return and 
drink with the Arabs, 

“ Do not disgrace. Christianity in this unmannerly way,” he 
said ; “ but show these gentlemen of the desert that we" know 
what propriety is. Captain Truck, I beg of you to urge Mr. 
Dodge to return. I was about to sing the Arabs, ‘ God save 
the King,’ and in a few more minutes we should have had 
‘ Rule Britannia,’ when we should have been the best friends 
and companions in the world. Captain Truck, I’ve the honor 
to drink your health.” 

But Captain Truck viewed the 'matter differently. Both 
his ambassadors were now safely back, for Mr. Monday came 
down upon the beach, followed it is true, by all the Arabs, and 
the mast was afloat. He thought it better, therefore, that Mr. 
Dodge should remain, and that the two parties should be as 
quietly, but as speedily as possible, separated. He ordered 
the hauling line to be fastened to the mast, and as the stick was 
slowly going out through the surf, he issued the order for the 
men to collect their implements, take their arms, and to assem- 
ble in a body at the rocks where the jolly boat still lay. 

“ Be quick, men, but be steady ; for there are a hundred 
of these rascals on the beach already and all the last-comers 
are armed. We might pick up a few more useful things from 
the wreck, but the wind is coming in from the westward, and 
our principal concern now will be to save what we have got. 
Lead Mr. Monday along with you, Leach, for he is so full of 
diplomacy and schnaps just now that he forgets his safety. As 
for Mr. Dodge, I see he is stowed away in the boat already, as 
snug as the ground-tier in a ship loaded with molasses. Count 
the men off, sir, and see that no. one is missing.” 

By this time, the state of things on the beach had under- 
gone material changes. The wreck was full of Arabs, some of 


230 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


whom were armed and some not ; while mauls, crows, hand- 
spikes, purchases, coils of rigging, and marling-spikes were 
scattered about on the sands, just where they had been dropped 
by the seamen. A party of fifty Arabs had collected around the 
rocks, where, by this time, all the mariners were assembled, in- 
termingling with the latter, and apparently endeavoring to 
maintain the friendly relations which had been established by 
Mr. Monday. As a portion of these men were also armed, 
Captain Truck disliked their proceedings ; but the inferiority 
of his numbers, and the disadvantage under which he was 
placed, compelled him to resort to management rather than 
force, in order to extricate himself. 

The Arabs now crowded around and intermingled with the 
seamen, thronged the ship, and lined the bank, to the number 
of more than two hundred. It became evident that their true 
force had been underrated, and that additions were constantly 
making to it, from those who lay behind the ridges of sand. 
All those who appeared last, had arms of one kind or another, 
and several brought firearms, which they gave to the sheik, and 
to those who had first descended to the beach. Still, every 
face seemed amicable, and the men were scarcely permitted to 
execute their orders, from the frequent interruptions to ex- 
change tokens of friendship. 

But Captain Truck fully believed that hostilities were in- 
tended, and although he had suffered himself in some measure 
to be surprised, he set about repairing his error with great 
judgment and admirable steadiness. His first step was to ex- 
tricate his own people from those who pressed upon them, a 
thing that was effected by causing a few to take a position, that 
might be defended, higher among the rocks, as they afforded 
a good deal of cover, and which communicated directly with 
the place wher& they had landed ; and then ordering the re- 
mainder of the men to fall back singly. To prevent an alarm, 
each man was called off by name, and in this manner the whole 
party had .got within the prescribed limits, before the Arabs, 
who were vociferating and talking altogether, seemed to be 
awkre of the movement. When some of the latter attempted 
to follow, they were gently repulsed by the sentinels. All this 
time Captain Truck maintained the utmost cordiality towards 
the sheik, keeping near him, and amongst the Arabs himself. 
The work of plunder, in the meantime, had begun in earnest in 
the wreck, and this he thought a favorable symptom, as the 
men thus employed would be less likely to make a hostile at- 
tack. Still he knew that prisoners were of great account 


HOME WARD BOUND . 


231 


among these barbarians, and that an attempt to tow the raft off 
from the land, in open boats, where his people would be ex- 
posed to every shot from the wreck, would subject them to the 
greatest danger of defeat, were the former disposed to prevent 
it. 

Having reflected a few minutes on his situation, Captain 
Truck issued his final orders. The jolly-boat might carry a 
dozen men at need, though they would be crowded and much 
exposed to fire ; and he, therefore, caused eight to get into her, 
and to pull out to the launch. Mr. Leach went with this party, 
for the double purpose of directing its movements, and of being 
separated from his commander, in order that one of those who 
were of so much importance to the packet, might at least stand 
a chance of being saved. This separation also was effected 
without alarming the Arabs, though Captain Truck observed 
that the sheik watched the proceeding narrowly. 

As soon as Mr. Leach had reached the launch, he caused 
a light kedge to be put into the jolly-boat, and coils of the 
lightest rigging he had were laid on the top of it, or were 
made on the bows of the launch. As soon as this was done, 
the boat was pulled a long distance off from the land, paying out 
the ropes first from the launch, and then from the boat itself, 
until no more of the latter remained. The kedge was then 
dropped, and the men in the launch began to haul in upon the 
ropes that were attached to it. As the jolly-boat returned 
immediately, and her crew joined in the work, the line of boats, 
the kedge by which they had previously ridden having been 
first raised, began slowly to recede from the shore. 

Captain Truck had rightly conjectured the effect of this move- 
ment. It was so unusual and so gradual, that the launch and 
the raft were warped up to the kedge, before the Arabs fully com- 
prehended its nature. The boats were now more than a quarter 
of a mile from the wreck, for Mr. Leach had run out quite two 
hundred fathoms of small rope, and of course, so distant as 
greatly to diminish the danger from the muskets of the Arabs, 
though still within reach of their range. Near an hour was 
passed in effecting this point, which, as the sea and wind were 
both rising, could not probably have been effected in any 
other manner, half as soon, if at all. 

The state of the weather, and the increasing turbulence 
of the barbarians, now rendered it extremely desirable to all 
on the rocks to be in their boats again. A very moderate 
blow would compel them to abandon their hard-earned advan- 
tages, and it began to be pretty evident, fr<3m the manners of 


232 


NOME WAND BOUND. 


those around them, that amity could not much longer be main- 
tained. Even the old sheik retired, and instead of going to 
the wreck, he joined the party on the beach, where he was 
seen in earnest conversation with several other old men, all of 
whom gesticulated vehemently, as they pointed towards the 
boats and to the party on the rocks. 

Mr. Leach now pulled in towards the bar, with both the 
jolly-boats and the cutter, having only two oars each, half his men 
being left in the launch. This was done that the people might not 
be crowded ^t the critical moment, and that, at need, there might 
be room to fight as well as to row : all these precautions 
having been taken in consequence of Captain Truck’s previous 
orders. When the boats reached the rocks, the people did not 
hurry into them ; but a quarter of an hour was passed in prepara- 
tions, as if they were indifferent about proceeding, and even 
then the jolly, -boat alone took in a portion, and pulled leisurely 
without the bar. Here she lay on her oars, in order to cover 
the passage of the other boats, if necessary, with her fire. 
The cutter imitated this manoeuvre, and the boat of the 
wreck went last. Captain Truck quitted the rock after all the 
others, though his embarkation was made rapidly by a prompt 
and sudden movement. 

Not a shot was fired, however, and, contrary to his own 
most ardent hopes, the captain found himself at the launch, 
with all his people unhurt, and with all the spars he had so 
much desired to obtain. The forbearance of the Arabs was a 
mystery to him, for he had fully expected hosilities would 
commence, every moment, for the last two hours. Nor was he 
yet absolutely out of danger, though there was time to pause 
and look about him, and to take his succeeding measures more 
deliberately. The first report was a scarcity of both, food and 
water. For both these essentials the men had depended on 
the wreck, and, in the eagerness to secure the foremast, and 
subsequently to take care of themselves, these important requis- 
ites had been overlooked, quite probably, too, as much from a 
knowledge that the Moptauk was so near, as from hurry. 
Still both were extremely desirable, if not indispensable, to men 
who had the prospect of many hours’ hard work before them ; 
and Captain Truck’s first impulse was to despatch a boat to 
the ship for supplies. This intention was reluctantly abandoned, 
however, on account of the threatening appearance of the 
weather. 

There was no danger of a gale, but a smart sea breeze was 
beginning to set in, "and the surface of the ocean was, as usual, 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


233 


getting to be agitated. Changing all his plans, therefore, the 
Captain turned his immediate attention to the safety of the all- 
important spars. 

“ We can eat to-morrow, men,” he said ; “ but if we lose 
these sticks, our chance for getting any more will indeed be 
small. Take a gang on the raft, Mr. Leach, and double all the 
lashings, while I see that we get an offing. If the wind rises 
any more, we shall need it, and even then be worse off than we 
could wish.” 

The mate passed upon the raft, and set about securing all 
the spars by additional fastenings ; for the working, occasioned 
by the sea, already rendered them loose, and liable to separate. 
While this was in train, the two jolly-boats took in lines and 
kedges, of which, luckily, they had one that was brought from 
the packet, besides two found in the wreck, and pulled off into 
the. ocean. As soon as one kedge was dropped, that by which 
the launch rode was tripped, and the boats were hauled up to it, 
the jolly-boat proceeding on to renew the process. In this 
manner, in the course of two more hours, the whole, raft and 
all, were warped broad off from the land, and to windward, quite 
two miles, when the water became so deep that Captain Truck 
reluctantly gave the order to cease. 

“ I would gladly work our way into the offing in .this mode, 
three or four leagues,” he said, “ by which means we might 
make a fair wind of it. As it is, we must get all clear, and do 
as well as we can. Rig the masts in the launch, Mr. Leach, 
and we will see what can be done with this dull craft we have 
in tow.” 

While this order was in course of execution, the glass was 
used to ascertain the manner in which the Arabs were occupied. 
To the surprise of all in the boats, every soul of them had dis- 
appeared. The closest scrutiny could not detect one near the 
wreck, on the beach, nor even at the spot where the tents had 
so lately stood. 

“They are all off, by George !” cried Captain Truck, when 
fully satisfied of the fact. “ Camels, tents, and Arabs ! The 
rascals have loaded their beasts already, and most probably 
have gone to hide their plunder, that they may be back and 
make sure of a second haul, before any of their precious brother 

vultures, up in the sands, get a scent of the carrion. D n 

the rogues ; I thought at one time they had me in a category ! 
Well, joy be with them ! Mr. Monday, I return you my hearty 
thanks for the manly, frank, and diplomatic manner in which 
you have discharged the duties of your mission. Without you, 


234 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


we might not have succeeded in* getting the foremast. Mr. 
Dodge, you have the high consolation of knowing that, through* 
out this trying occasion, you have conducted yourself in a way 
no other man of the party could have done.” 

Mr. Monday was sleeping off the fumes of the schnaps , but 
Mr. Dodge bowed to the compliment, and foresaw many capital 
things for the journal, and for the columns of the Active In- 
quirer. He even began to meditate a book. 

, Now commenced much the most laborious and critical part 
of the service that Captain Trurk had undertaken, if we except 
the collision with the Arabs---that of towing all the heavy spars 
of a large ship, in one raft, in the open sea, near a coast, and' 
with the wind blowing on shore. It is true he was strong- 
handed, being able to put ten oars in the launch, and four in 
all the other boats ; but, after making sail, and pulling steadily 
for an hour, it was discovered that all their exertions would not 
enable them to reach the ship, if the wind stood, before the 
succeeding day. The drift to leeward, or towards the beach 
was seriously great, every heave of the sea setting them bodily 
down before it ; and by the time they were half a mile to the 
southward, they were obliged to anchor, in order to keep clear 
of the breakers, which by this time extended fully a mile from 
shore. 

Decision was fortunately Captain Truck’s leading quality. 
He foresaw the length and severity of the struggle that was 
before them, and the men had not been pulling ten minutes, 
befre he ordered Mr. Leach, who was in the cutter, to cast off 
his line and come alongside the launch. 

“ Pull back to the wreck, sir,” he said, “and bring off all 
you can lay hands on, in h ‘ way of bread, water, and other 
comforts. We shall make a night of it, I see. We will keep a 
look-out for you, and if any Arabs heave in sight on the plain, 
a musket will be fired ; if so- many as to render a hint to 
abscond necessary, two muskets will be fired, and the mainsail 
of the launch will be furled for two minutes ; more time than 
that we cannot spare you.” 

Mr. Leach obeyed this order, and with great success. 
Luckily the cook had left the coppers full of food, enough to 
last twenty-four hours, and this had escaped the Arabs, who 
were ignorant where to look for it. In addition, there was 
plenty of bread and water, and “ a bull of Jamaica” had been 
discovered, by the instinct of one of the hands, which served 
admirably to keep the people in good humor. This timely 
supply had arrived just as the launch anchored, and Mr. Truck 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


2 35 

welcomed it with all his heart ; for without it, he foresaw he 
should soon be obliged to abandon his precious prize. 

When the people were refreshed, the long and laborious 
process of warping off the land was resumed, and, in the course 
of two hours more, the raft was got fully a league into the offing, 
a shoal permitting the kedges to be used farther out this time 
than before. Then sail was again made, and the oars were 
once more plied. But the sea still proved their enemy, though 
they had struck the current which began to set them south. 
Had there been no wind and sea, the progress of the boats 
would now have been comparatively easy and quick ; but these 
two adverse powers drove them in towards the beach so fast, 
that they had scarcely made two miles from the wreck when 
they were compelled a second time to anchor. 

No alternative remained but to keep warping off in this 
manner, and then to profit by the offing they had made as well 
as they could, the result bringing them at sunset nearly up 
with the headland that shut out the view of their own vessel, 
from which Captain Truck now calculated that he was distant 
a little less than two leagues. The wind had freshened, and 
though it was not by any means so strong as to render the sea 
dangerous, it increased the toil of the men to such a degree, 
that he reluctantly determined to seek out a proper anchorage, 
and to give his wearied people some rest. 

It was not in the power of the seamen to carry their raft 
into any haven, for to the northward of the headland, or on 
the side on which they were, there was no reef, nor any bay 
to afford them shelter. The coast was one continued waving 
line of sand-banks, and in most places, when there was a wind, 
the water broke at the distance of a mile from the beach ; the 
precise spot where the Dane had stranded his vessel, hav- 
ing most probably been chosen for that purpose, with a view to 
save the lives of the people. Under these circumstances 
nothing remained but to warp off again to a safe distance, and 
to secure the boats as well as -they could for the night. This 
was effected by eight o’clock, and Captain Truck gave the order 
to let go two additional kedges, being determined not to strike 
adrift in the darkness, if it was in his power to prevent it. 
When this was done, the people had their suppers, a watch was 
set, and the remainder went to sleep. 

As the three passengers had been exempted from the toil, 
they volunteered to look out for the safety of the boats until 
midnight, in order that the men might obtain as much rest as 
possible • and half an hour after the crew were lost in the deep 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


236 

slumber of seamen, Captain Truck and these gentlemen were 
seated in the launch, holding a dialogue. on the events of the day. 

“ You found the Arabs conversable and ready at the cup, 
Mr. Monday ? ” observed the captain, lighting a cigar, which 
with him was a never-failing sign for a gossip. “ Men that, if 
they had been sent to school young, taught to dance, and were 
otherwise civilized, might make reasonably good shipmates, in 
this roving world of ours ! ” 

“ Upon my word, sir, I look upon the sheik as uncommon 
gentlemanlike, and altogether as a good fellow. He took his 
glass without any grimaces, smiled whenever he said anything, 
though I could not understand a word he said, and answered 
all my remarks quite as civilly as if he spoke English. I must 
say, I think Mr. Dodge manifested a want of consideration in 
quitting his company with so little ceremony. The gentleman 
was hurt, I’ll answer for it, and he would say as much if he 
could only make out to explain himself on the subject. Sir 
George, I regret we had not the honor of your company on the 
occasion, for I have been told these Arabs have a proper re- 
spect for the nobility and gentry. Mr. Dodge and myself were 
but poor substitutes for a gentleman like yourself.’’ 

The trained humility of Mr. Monday was little to the liking 
of Mr. Dodge, who by the sheer force of the workings of envy 
had so long been endeavoring to persuade others that he was 
the equal of any and every other man — a delusion, however, 
which he could not succeed in persuading himself to fall 
into — and he was not slow in exhibiting the feeling it awakened. 

“ Sir George Templemore has too just a sense of the rights 
of nations to make this distinction, Mr. Monday,” he said. “ If 
I left the Arab sheik a little abruptly, it was because I disliked 
his ways; for I take it Africa is a free country, and that no 
man is obliged to remain longer in a tent than it suits his own 
convenience. Captain Truck knows that I was merely running 
down the Beach to inform him that the sheik intended to follow, 
and he no doubt appreciates my- motives.” 

“ If not, Mr. Dodge,” put in the captain, “like other 
patriots, you must trust to posterity to do you justice. The 
joints and sinews are so differently constructed in different 
men, that one never knows exactly how to calculate on speed ; 
but this much I will make affidavit to, if you wish it, on reach- 
ing home, and that is, that abetter messenger could not be 
found than Mr. Steadfast Dodge, for a man in a hurry. 
Sir George Templemore, we have had but a few of your opinions 
since you came out on this expedition, and I should be gratified 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


237 

to Rear your sentiments concerning the Arabs, and any thing 
else that may suggest itself at the moment.” 

“ Oh, captain ! I think the wretches odiously dirty, and 
judging from appearances, I should say sadly deficient in com- 
forts.” 

“ In the way of breeches in particular ; for I am inclined 
to think, Sir George, you are master of more than are to be 
found in their whole nation. Well, gentlemen, one must 
certainly travel who wishes to see the world ; but for this 
sheer down here upon the coast of Africa, neither of us might 
have ever known how an Arab lives, and what a nimble wrecker 
he makes. For my own part, if the choice lay between filling 
th^ office of Jemmy Ducks, on board the Montauk, and that of 
sheik in this tribe, I should, as we say in America, Mr. Dodge, 
leave, it to the people, and do all in my power to obtain the 
first situation. Sir George, I’m afraid all these county tongues, 
as Mr. Dodge calls them, in the way of wind and weather, will 
quite knock the buffalo hunt on the Prairies in the head, for this 
fall at least.” 

“I beg, Captain Truck, you will not descredit my French 
in this way. I do not call a disappointment ‘ county tongues' 
but t contra toms ; ’ the phrase probably coming from some 
person of the name of tom , who was contra , or opposed to every 
one else.” 

“ Perfectly explained, and as clear as bilge-water. Sir 
George, has Mr. Dodge mentioned to you the manner in which 
these Arabs enjoy life ? The gentlemen, by way of saving 
dish-water, eat half-a-dozen at a time out of the same plate. 
Quite republican, and altogether without pride, Mr. Dodge, in 
their notions ! ” 

“ Why, sir, many of their habits struck me as being simple 
and praiseworthy, during the short time I remained in their 
country ; and I daresay, one who had leisure to study them 
might find materials for admiration. I can readily imagine 
situations in which a man has no right to appropriate a whole 
dish to himself.” 

“ No doubt, and he who wishes a thing so unreasonable 
must be a great hog ! What a thing is sleep 1 Here are these 
fine fellows as much lost to their dangers and toils as if at 
home, and tucked in by their careful and pious mothers. Little 
did the good souls who nursed them, and sung pious songs over 
their cradles, fancy the hardships they were bringing them up 
to ! But we never know our fates, or miserable dogs most of 
us would be. Is it not so, Sir George ? ” 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


238 

The baronet started at this appeal, which crossed the 
quaint mind' of the captain as a cloud darkens a sunny view, 
and he muttered a hasty expression of hope that there was 
now no particular reason to expect any more serious obstacles 
to their reaching the ship. 

“ It is .not an easy thing to tow a heavy raft in light boats 
like these, exactly in the direction you wish it to go,” returned 
the captain, gaping. “ He who trusts to the winds and waves, 
trusts an uncertain friend, and one who may fail him at the 
very moment when there is most need of their services. Fair 
as things now seem, I would give a thousand dollars of a small 
stock, in which no single dollar has been lightly earned, to 
see these spars safely on board the Montauk, and snugly fitted 
to their proper places. Sticks, gentlemen, are to a ship what 
limbs are to a man. Without them she rolls and tumbles 
about as winds, currents, and seas will ; while with them she 
walks, and dances, and jumps Jim Crows ; ay, almost talks. 
The standing rigging are the bones and gristle ; the running 
gear the veins in which her life circulates ; and the blocks the 
joints.” 

“ And which is the heart ? ” asked Sir George. 

“ Her heart is the master. With a sufficient commander 
no stout ship is ever lost, so long as she has a foot of water 
beneath her false keel, or a ropeyarn left to turn to account.” 

“ And yet the Dane had all these.” 

“ All but the water. The best craft that was ever launched, 
is of less use than a single camel, if laid high and dry on the 
sands of Africa. These poor wretches truly ! And yet their 
fate might have been ours, though I thought little of the risk 
while we were in the midst of the Arabs. It is still a mystery 
to me why they let us escape, especially as they so soon de- 
serted the wreck. They were strong-handed, too ; counting all 
who came and went, I think not less than several hundreds.” 

The captain now became silent and thoughtful, and, as the 
wind continued to rise, he began to feel uneasiness about his 
ship. Once or twice he expressed a half-formed determination 
to pull to her in one of the light boats, in order to look after 
her safety in person, and then he abandoned it, as he witnessed 
the rising of the sea, and the manner in which the massive raft 
caused the cordage by which it was held to strain. At length 
he too fell asleep, and we shall leave him and his party for 
awhile, and return to the Montauk, to give an account of what 
occurred on board that ship. 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


2 39 


CHAPTER XXI. 

Nothing beside remains ! Round the decay 
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare 
The lone and level sands stretch far away 

Shelley . 

As Captain Truck was so fully aware of the importance of 
rapid movements to the success of his enterprise, it will be re- 
membered that he left in the ship no seaman, no servant, ex- 
cept Saunders the steward, and, in short, no men but the two 
Messrs. Effingham, Mr. Sharp, Mr. Blunt, and the other person 
just mentioned. If to these be added, Eve Effingham, Made- 
moiselle Viefville, Ann Sidley, and a French fcmi?ie de chambre , 
the whole party will be enumerated. At first, it had been the 
intention of the master to leave one of his mates behind him, 
but, encouraged by the secure berth he had found for his vessel, 
the great strength of his moorings, the little hold the winds and 
waves could get of spars so robbed of their proportions, and of 
a hull so protected by the reef, and feeling a certain confidence 
in the knowledge of Mr. Blunt, who, several times during the 
passage, had betrayed a great familiarity with ships, he came 
to the decision named, and had formally placed the last named 
gentleman in full charge, ad interim , of the Montauk. 

There was a solemn and exciting interest in the situation 
of those who remained in the vessel, after the party of bus- 
tling seamen had left them. The night came in bland and tran- 
quil, and although there was no moon, they walked the deck 
for hours with strange sensations, of enjoyment, mingled with 
those of loneliness and desertion. Mr. Effingham and his 
cousin retired to their rooms long before the others, who con- 
tinued their exercise with a freedom and an absence of re- 
straint, that they had not before felt, since subjected to the con- 
finement of the ship. 

“ Our situation is at least novel,” Eve observed, “ for a 
party of Parisians, Viennois, Romans, or by whatever name we 
may be properly styled.” 

“ Say Swiss then,” returned Mr. Blunt ; “for I believe that 
even the cosmopolite has a claim to choose his favorite resi- 
dence.” 


240 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


Eve understood the allusion, which carried her back to the 
weeks they had passed in company, among the grand scenery 
of the Alps ; but she would not betray the consciousness, for, 
whatever may be the ingenuousness of a female, she seldom 
loses her sensitiveness on the subject of her more cherished 
feelings. 

“ And do you prefer Switzerland to all the other countries 
of your acquaintance ? ” asked Mr. Sharp : “ England I leave 
out of the question, for, though we, who belong to the island, 
see so many charms in it, it must be conceded that strangers 
seldom join us very heartily in its praises. I think most trav- 
ellers would give the palm to Italy.” 

“ I am quite of the same opinion,” returned the other ; 
“ and were I to be confined to a choice of a residence for life, 
Italy should be my home. Still, I think, that we like change 
in our residence, as well as in the seasons. Italy is summer, 
and one, I fear, would weary of even an eternal June.” 

“ Is npt Italy rather autumn, a country in which the harvest 
is gathered, and where one begins already to see the fall of the 
leaf ? ” 

“ To me,” said Eve, “ it would be an eternal summer ; as 
things are eternal with young ladies. My ignorance would be 
always receiving instruction, and my tastes improvement. 
But, if Italy be summer, or autumn, what is poor America ? ” 

“ Spring of course,” civilly answered Mr. Sharp. 

“ And, do you, Mr. Blunt, who seem to know all parts of 
the world equally well, agree in giving our country, my country 
at least, this encouraging title ? ” 

“It is merited in many respects, though there are others in 
which the term winter would, perhaps, be better applied. Amer- 
ica is a country not easily understood ; for, in some particulars, 
like Minerva, it has been born full-grown ; while, in others, it 
is certainly still an infant.” 

“ In what particulars do you especially class it with the lat- 
ter ? ” inquired Mr. Sharp. 

“ In strength, to commence,” answered the other, slightly 
smiling “ in opinion, too, and in tastes, and perhaps in knowl- 
edge. As to the latter essential, however, and practical things 
as well as in the commoner comforts, America may well claim to 
be in midsummer, when compared with other nations. I do 
not think you Americans, Miss Effingham, at the head of civili- 
zation, certainly, as so many of your own people fancy ; nor 
at the bottom, as so many of those of Mademoiselle Viefville 
and Mr. Sharpe so piously believe.” 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


241 


“ And what are the notions of the countrymen of Mr. Blunt, 
on the subject ? ” 

“ As far from the truth, perhaps, as any other. I perceive 
there exist some doubts as to the place of my nativity,” he 
added, after a pause that denoted a hesitation, which all hoped 
was to end in his setting the matter at rest, by a simple state- 
ment of the fact ; “ and I believe I shall profit by the circum- 
stance, to praise and condemn at pleasure, since no one can 
impeach my candor, or impute either to partialities or preju- 
dices.” 

“ That must depend on the justice of your judgments. In 
one thing, however, you will have me on your side, and that is 
in giving the pas to delicious, dreamy Italy? Though Made- 
moiselle V-iefville will set this down as lese majeste against cher 
Paris ; and I fear, Mr. Sharp will think even London injured.” 

“ Do you really hold London so cheap ? ” inquired the lat- 
ter gentleman, with more interest than he himself was quite aware 
of betraying. 

“ Indeed, no. This would be to discredit my own tastes 
and knowledge. In- a hundred things, I think London quite 
the finest town of Christendom. It is not Rome, certainly, 
and were it in ruins fifteen centuries, I question if people 
would flock to the banks of the Thames to dream away exist- 
ence among its crumbling walls ; but, inconveniences, beauty 
of verdure, a mixture of park-like scenery and architecture, 
and in magnificence of a certain sort, one would hardly know 
where to go to find the equal of London.” 

“ You say nothing of its society, Miss Effingham ? ” 

“ It would be presuming, in a girl of my limited experience, 
to speak of this. I hear so much of the good sense of the na- 
tion, that I dare not say aught against its society, and it would 
be affectation for me to pretend to commend it ; but as for 
your females, judging by my own poor means, they strike me 
as being singularly well' cultivated and accomplished ; and 
yet ” 

“Go on, I entreat you. Recollect we have solemnly. de- 
cided in a general congress of states to be cosmopolites, until 
safe within Sandy Hook, and that la franchise is the mot 
cTordre .” 

“ Well, then, I should not certainly describe you English as 
a talking people,” continued Eve, laughing. “In the way of 
society, you are quite as agreeable as a people, who never 
laugh and seldom speak, can possibly make themselves.” 


242 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


“ Et les jeuncs Amcricaines ?” said Mademoiselle Viefville. 
laconically. 

“ My dear mademoiselle, your question is terrific ! Mr. 
Blunt has informed me that they actually giggle ! ” 

“ Quelle horreur ! ” 

“ It is. bad enough, certainly ; but I ascribe the report to 
calumny. No ; if I must speak, let me have Paris for its society, 
and Naples for its nature. As respects New York, Mr. Blunt, 
I suspend my judgment.” 

“ Whatever may be the particular merit which shall most 
attract your admiration in favor of the great emporium, as the 
grandiloquent writers term the capital of you own state, I think 
I can venture to predict it will be neither of those just men- 
tioned. Of society, indeed, New York has positively none : 
like London, it has plenty of company, which is disciplined 
something like a regiment of militia composed of drafts from 
different brigades, and which sometimes mistakes the drum- 
major for the colonel.” 

“ I had fancied you a New Yorker, until now,” observed Mr, 
Sharp. 

“ And why not now ? Is a man to be blind to facts as evi- 
dent as the noonday sun, because he was born here or there ? 
If I have told you an unpleasant truth, Miss Effingham, you 
must accuse la franchise of the offence. I believe you are not 
a Manhattanese ! ” 

“ I am a mountaineer ; having been born at my father’s 
country residence.” 

“ This gives me courage then, for no one here will have his 
filial piety shocked.” 

“ Not even yourself ? ” 

“ As for myself,” returned Paul Blunt, “ it is settled I am 
a cosmopolite in fact, while you are only a cosmopolite by con- 
vention. Indeed, I question if I might take the same liberties 
with either Paris or London, that I am about to take with 
palmy Manhattan. I should have little confidence in the for- 
bearance of my auditors : Mademoiselle Yiefville would hardly 
forgive me, were I to attempt a criticism on the first, for in- 
stance.” 

“ Cest impossible / you could not, Monsieur Blunt ; vous par- 
lez trop bien Francois not to love Paris.” 

“ I do love Paris, mademoiselle ; and, what is more, I love 
LonFrs, or even la Nouvelle Yorck. As a cosmopolite, I claim 
this privilege, at least, though I can see defects in all. If you 
will recollect, Miss Effingham, that New York is a social biv- 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


243 

ouac, a place in which families encamp instead of troops, you 
will see the impossibility of its possessing a graceful, well- 
ordered, and cultivated society. Then the town is commercial ; 
and no place of mere commerce can well have a reputation for 
its society. Such an anomaly, I believe, never existed. What- 
ever may be the usefulness of trade, I fancy few* will contend 
that it is very graceful.” 

“ Florence of old ? ” said Eve. 

“ Florence and her commerce were peculiar, and the rela- 
tions of things change with circumstances. When Florence 
was great, trade was a monopoly, in a few hands, and so con- 
ducted as to remove the principles from immediate contact with 
its affairs. The Medici traded in spices and silks, as men traded 
in politics, through agents. They probably never saw their 
ships, or had any farther connection with their commerce, than 
to direct its spirit. They were more like the legislator who 
enacts laws to regulate trade, than the dealer who fingers a 
sample, smells at a wine, or nibbles a grain. The Medici were 
merchants, a class of men altogether different from the mere 
/factors, who buy of one to sell to another, at a stated advance 
in price, and all of whose enterprise consists in extending the 
list of safe customers, and of doing what is called a ‘ regular 
business/ Monopolies do harm on the whole, but they cer- 
tainly elevate the favored few. The Medici and the Strozzi were 
both princes and merchants, while those' around them were 
principally dependents. Competition, in our day, has let in 
thousands to share in the benefits ; and fhe pursuit, whife it is 
enlarged as a whole, has suffered in its parts by division.” 

“ You surely do not complain that a thousand are comfort- 
able and respectable to-day, for one that was il magjiifico three 
hundred years since ? ” 

“ Certainly not. I rejoice in the change ; but we must not 
confound names with things. If we have a thousand mere fac- 
tors for one merchant, society, in the general signification of 
the word, is clearly a gainer ; but if we had one Medici for a 
thousand factors, society, in its particular signification, might 
also be a gainer. All I mean is, that, in lowering the pursuit, 
we have necessarily lowered its qualifications ; in other words, 
every man in trade in New York, is^ no more a Lorenzo, than 
every printer’s devil is a Franklin.” 

“ Mr. Blunt cannot be an American ! ” cried Mr. Sharp ; 
“ for these opinions would be heresy.” 

u Jamais, jamais,” joined the governess. 

“ You constantly forget the treaty of cosmopolitism. But 


244 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


a capital error is abroad concerning America on this very sub- 
ject of commerce. In the way of merchandise alone, there is 
not a Christian maritime nation of any extent, that has a smaller 
portion of its population engaged in trade of this sort than the 
United States of America. The nation, as a nation, is agricul- 
tural, though the state of transition, in which a country in the 
course of rapid settlement must always exist, causes more buy- 
ing and selling of real property than is usual. Apart from this 
peculiarity, the Americans, as a whole people, have not the 
common Eoropean proportions of ordinary dealers.” 

“ This is not the prevalent opinion.” said Mr. Sharp. 

“It is not, and the reason is, that all American towns, or 
nearly all that are at all known in other countries, are purely 
commercial towns. The trading portion of a community is 
always the concentrated portion, too, and of course, in the 
absence of a court, of a political, or of a social capital, it has 
the greatest power to make itself heard and felt, until there is 
a direct appeal to the other classes. The elections commonly 
show quite as little sympathy between the majority and the 
commercial class as is consistent with the public welfare. In 
point of fact, America has but a very small class of real mer- 
chants, men who are the cause and not a consequence of com- 
merce, though she has exceeding activity in the way of ordinary 
traffic. The portion of her people who are engaged as factors, 
— for this is the true calling of the man who is a regular agent 
between the common producer and the common consumer, — 
are of a high class as factors, but not of the high class of mer- 
chants. The man who orders a piece of silk to manufactured 
at Lyons, at three francs a yard, to sell it in the regular course 
of the season to the retailer at three francs and a half, is no 
more a true merchant, than the attorney, who goes through the 
prescribed forms of the court in his pleadings, is a barrister.” 

“ I do not think these sentiments will be very popular at 
home, as Mr. Dodge says,” Eve laughingly remarked; “but 
when shall we reach that home ! While we are talking of these 
things, here are we, in an almost deserted ship, within a mile 
of the great Desert of Sahara ! How beautiful are the stars, 
mademoiselle ! we have never before seen a vault so studded 
with brilliants.” 

“ That must be owing to the latitude,” Mr. Sharp observed. 

“ Certainly. Can any one say in what latitude we are pre- 
cisely ? ” As Eve asked this question, she unconsciously turned 
towards Mr. Blunt ; for the whole party had silently come to 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


245 

the conclusion that he knew more of ships and navagation than 
all of them united. 

“ I believe we are not far from twenty-four, which is bring- 
ing us near the tropics, and places us quite sixteen degrees to 
the southward of our port. These two affairs of the chase and 
of the gale have driven us fully twelve hundred miles from the 
course we ought to have taken.” 

“ Fortunately, mademoiselle, there are none to feel appre- 
hensions on our account, or, none whose interest will be so 
keen as to create a very lively distress. I hope, gentlemen, 
you are equally at ease on this score ? ” 

This was the first time Eve had ever trusted herself to put 
an interrogatory that might draw from Paul Blunt any commu- 
nication that would directly touch upon his connections. She 
repented of the speech as soon as made, but causelessly, as it 
drew from the young man no answer. Mr. Sharp observed 
that his friends in England could scarcely know of their situa- 
tion, until his own letters would arrive to relieve their minds. 
As for Mademoiseile Viefville, the hard fortune which reduced 
her to. the office of a governess, had almost left her without 
natural ties. 

“ I believe we are to have watch and ward to-night,” re- 
sumed Eve, after the general pause had continued some little 
time. “ Is it not possible for the elements to put us in the 
same predicament as that in which we found the poor f)ane ? ” 

“ Possible, certainly, but scarcely probable,” returned Mr. - 
Blunt. “The ship is well moored, and this narrow ledge of 
rocks, between us and the ocean, serves admirably for a break- 
water. One would not like to be stranded, helpless as we are, 
at this moment, on a coast like this ! ” 

“ Why so particularly helpless ? You alude to the absence 
of our crew ? ” 

“ To that, and to the fact that, I believe, we could not 
muster as much as a pocket-pistol to defend ourselves with, 
everything in the shape of firearms having been sent with the 
party in the boats.” 

“ Might we not lie on the beach, here, for days, even weeks,” 
inquired Mr. Sharp, “ without being discovered by the Arabs ? ” 

“ I fear not. Mariners have told me that the barbarians 
hover along the shores, especially after gales, in the hope of 
meeting with wrecks, and that it is surprising how soon they gain 
intelligence of any disaster. It is seldom there is even an op- 
portunity to escape in a boat.” 

“ I hope here, at least, we are safe ? ” cried Eve, in a little 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


246 

terror, and shuddering, as much in playfulness as in real 
alarm. 

“ I see no grounds of concern where we are, so long as we 
can keep the ship off the shore. The Arabs have no boats, 
and if they had, they would not dare to attack a vessel that 
floated, in one, unless aware of her being as truly helpless as 
we happen at this moment to be.” 

“ This is a chilling consolation, but I shall trust in your 
good care, gentlemen. Mademoiselle, it is drawing near mid- 
night, I believe.” 

Eve and her companion then courteously wished the two 
young men good night, and retired to their staterooms ; Mr. 
Sharp remained an hour longer with Mr. Blunt, who had under- 
taken to watch the first few hours, conversing with a light heart, 
and gayly ; for, though there was a“ secret consciousness of 
rivalry between these two young men on the subject of Eve’s 
favor, it was a generous and manly competition, in which each 
did the other ample justice. They talked of their travels, their 
views of customs and nations, their adventures in different 
countries, and of the pleasure each had felt in visiting spots re- 
nowned by association or the arts ; but not a word was hazarded 
either by concerning the young creature who had just left them, 
and whom each still saw in his mind’s eye, long after her light and 
graceful form had disappeared. At length Mr. Sharp went 
below, his companion insisting on being left alone, under the 
penalty of remaining up himself during the second watch. 
From this time, for several hours, there was no other noise in 
the ship than the tread of the solitary watchman. At the ap- 
pointed period of the night, a change took place, and he who 
had watched slept, while he who had slept watched. Just as 
day dawned, however, Paul Blunt, who was in a deep sleep, 
felt a shake at his shoulder. 

“ Pardon me,” cautiously whispered Mr. Sharp : “ I fear we 
are about to have a most unpleasant interruption to our soli- 
tude.” 

“ Heavenly powers ! — Not the Arabs?” 

“ I fear no less : but it is still too dark to be certain of the 
fact. If you will rise, we can consult on the situation in which 
we are placed. I beg you to be quick.” 

Paul Blunt had hastily risen on an arm, and he now passed 
a hand over his brow, as if to make certain that he was awake. 
He had not undressed himself, and in another moment he stood 
on his feet in the middle of the stateroom. 

“ This is too serious to allow of mistake. We will not alarm 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


247 

her then ; we will not give any alarm, sir, until certain of the 
calamity.” 

“ In that I entirely agree with you,” returned Mr. Sharp, 
who was perfectly calm, though evidently distressed. 44 I may* 
be mistaken, and wish your opinion. All on board but us two 
are in a profound sleep.” 

The other drew on his coat, and in a minute both were on 
deck.. The day had not yet dawned, and the light was scarce 
sufficient to distinguish objects even near as those on the reef, 
particularly when they were stationary. The rocks, them- 
selves, however, were visible in places, for the tide was out, and 
most of the upper portion of the ledge was bare, The two 
gentlemen moved cautiously to the bows of the vessel, and, 
concealed by the bulwarks, Mr, Sharp pointed out to his com- 
panion the objects that had given him the alarm. 

“ Do you see the pointed rock a little to the right of the 
spot where the kedge is placed ? ” he said, pointing in the 
direction that he meant. “ It is now naked, and I am quite 
certain there was an object on it, when I went below, that has 
since moved away.” 

44 It may have been a sea-bird ; for we are so near the day, 
some 'of them are probably in motion. Was it large ? ” 

44 Of the size of a man’s head, apparently ; but this is by 
no means all. Here, farther to the north, I distinguished three 
objects in motion, wading in the water, near the point where 
the rocks are never bare.” 

44 They may have been herons the bird is often found in 
these low-latitudes, I believe. I can discover nothing.” 

44 1 would to God, I may have been mistaken, though I do 
not think I could be so much deceived.” 

Paul Blunt caught his arm, and held it like one who lis- 
tened intently, 

44 Heard you that ? ” he whispered hurriedly. 

44 It sounded like the clanking of iron.” 

Looking around, the other found a handspike, and passing 
swiftly up the heel of the bowsprit, he stood between the 
knight-heads. Here he bent forward, and looked intently to- 
wards the lines of chains which lay oyer the bulwarks, as bow- 
fasts. Of these chains the parts led quite near each other, in 
parallel lines, and as the ship’s moorings were taut, they were 
hanging in merely a slight curve. From the rocks, or the place 
where the kedges were laid to a point within thirty feet- of the 
ship, these chains were dotted with living beings crawling 
cautiously upward. It was even easy, at a second look, to 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


248 

perceive that they were men stealthily advancing on their hands 
and feet. 

Raising the handspike, Mr. Blunt struck the chains several 
^violent blows. The effect was to cause the whole of the Arabs 
— for it could be no others — suddenly to cea^e advancing, and 
to seat themselves astride the chains. 

“ This is fearful,” said Mr. Sharp ; “ but we must die, rather 
than permit them to reach the ship.” 

“ We must. Stand you here, and if they advance, strike 
the chains. There is not an instant to lose.” 

Paul Blunt spoke hurriedly, and, giving the other the hand- 
spike, he ran down to the bitts, and commenced loosening the 
chains from their fastenings. The Arabs heard the clanking 
of the iron-rings, as he threw coil after coil on the deck, and 
they did not advance, Presently two parts yielded together 
beneath them, and then two more. These were the signals for 
a common retreat, and Mr. Sharp now plainly counted fifteen 
human forms as they scrambled back towards the reef, some 
hanging by their arms, some half in' the water, and others ly- 
ing along the chains, as best they might. Mr. Blunt having 
loosened the chains, so as to let their bights fall into the sea, the 
ships lowly drifted astern, and rode by her cables. When this 
was done, the two young men stood together in silence on the 
forecastle, as if each felt that all which had just occurred was 
some illusion. 

“This is indeed terrible,” exclaimed Paul -Blunt. “We 
have not even a pistol left ! No means of defence — nothing 
but this narrow belt of water between us and these barbarians ! 
No doubt, too, they have firearms ; and, as soon as it is light, 
they will render it unsafe to remain on deck.” 

Mr. Sharp took the hand of his companion and pressed it 
fervently. “ God bless you ! ” he said in a stifled voice. “God 
bless you, for even this brief delay. But for this happy 
thought of yours, Miss Effingham — the others — we should all 
have been, by this time, at the mercy of these remorseless 
wretches. This is not a moment for false pride or pitiful de- 
ceptions. I think either of us would willingly die to rescue 
that beautiful and innocent creature from a fate like this which 
threatens her in common with ourselves ? ” 

“ Cheerfully would I lay down my life to be assured that 
she was, at this instant, safe in a civilized and Christian country.” 

These generous young men squeezed each other’s hands, 
and at that moment no feeling of rivalry, or of competition 
even, entered the heart of either. Both were influenced by a 


\HOME WARD BOUND. 


249 


pure and ardent desire to serve the woman they loved, and it 
would be true to say, that scarce a thought of any but Eve was 
uppermost in their minds. Indeed so engrossing was their 
common care in her behalf, so much more terrible than that of 
any other person did her fate appear on being captured, that 
they forgot, for the moment, there were others in the ship, and 
others, too, who might be serviceable in arresting the very 
calamity they dreaded. 

“ They may not be a strong party,” said Paul Blunt, after a 
little thought, “ in which case, failing of a surprise, they may 
not be able to muster a force sufficient to hazard an open attack 
until the return of the boats. We have, God be praised ! 
escaped being seized in our sleep, and made unconscious victims 
of so cruel a fate. Fifteen or twenty will scarcely dare attempt 
a ship of this size, without a perfect knowledge of our feeble- 
ness, and particularly of our want of arms. There is a light 
gun on board, and it is loaded ; with this, too, we may hold 
them at bay, by not betraying our weakness. Let us awake 
the others, for this is not a moment for sleep. We are safe, at 
least, for an hour or two ; since, without boats, they cannot 
possibly find the means to board us in less than that time.” 

..The two young men went below, unconsciously treading 
lightly, like those who moved about in the presence of an 
impending danger. Paul Blunt was in advance, and to his great 
surprise he met Eve at the door of the ladies’ cabin, apparently 
awaiting their approach. She was dressed, for apprehension, 
and the novelty of their situation, had caused her to sleep in 
most of her clothes, and a few moments had sufficed for a hasty 
adjustment of the toilet. Miss Effingham was pale, but a con- 
centration of all her energies seemed to prevent the exhibition 
of any womanly terror. 

“ Something is wrong ! ” she said, trembling in spite of her- 
self, and laying her hand unwittingly on the arm of Paul Blunt : 
“ I heard the heavy fall of iron on the deck.” 

“ Compose yourself, dearest Miss Effingham, compose your- 
self, I entreat you. I mean, that we have come to awaken the 
gentlemen.” 

. “ Tell me the worst, Powis, I implore you. I am equal, — I 
think I am equal, to hearing it.” 

“ I fear your imagination has exaggerated the danger.” 

“ The coast ? v 

“ Of that there is no cause for apprehension. The sea is 
calm, and our fasts are perfectly good.” 

“ The boats ? ” 


250 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


** Will doubtless be back in good time.” 

“ Surely — surely,” said Eve, recoiling a step, as if she saw 
a monster, “ not the Arabs ? ” 

“They cannot enter the ship, though a few of them are 
hovering about us. But for the vigilance of Mr. Sharp, indeed, 
we might have all been captured in our sleep. As it is, we 
have warning, and there is now little doubt of our being able 
to intimidate the few barbarians who have shown themselves, 
until Captain Truck shall return.” 

“ Then from my soul, I thank you, Sir George Templemore, 
and for this good office will you receive the thanks of a father, 
and the prayers of all whom you have so signally served.” 

“ Nay, Miss Effingham, although I find this interest in me 
so grateful that I have hardly the heart to lessen your gratitude, 
truth compels me to give it a juster direction. But for the 
promptitude of Mr. Blunt — or as I now find I ought to address 
him, Mr. Powis — we should truly have all been lost.” 

“We will not dispute about your merits, gentlemen. You 
have both deserved our most heartfelt thanks, and if you will 
awaken my father and Mr. John Effingham, I will arouse 
Mademoiselle Viefville and my own women. Surely, surely, 
this is no time to sleep ! ” 

The summons was given at the stateroom doors, and the 
two young men returned to the deck, for they felt it was not 
safe to leave it long at such a moment.' All was quite tranquil 
above, however, nor could the utmost scrutiny now detect the 
presence of any person on the reef. 

“ The rocks are cut off from the shore, farther to the south- 
ward by deeper water,” said Paul Blunt — for we shall continue 
to call both gentlemen, except on particular occasions, by their 
noms de guerre — “ and when the tide is up the place cannot be 
forded. Of this the Arabs are probably aware ; and having 
failed in their first attempt, they will probably retire to the 
beach as the water is rising, for they might not like to be left 
on the riband of rock that will remain in face of the force that 
would be likely to be found in such a vessel.” 

“ May they not be acquainted with the absence of most of 
our people, and be bent upon seizing the vessel before they 
can return ? ” 

“ That indeed is the gloomy side of the conjecture, and it 
may possibly be too true ; but as the day is beginning to break, 
we shall soon learn the worst, and anything is better than va«-ue 
distrust.” 

For some time the two gentlemen paced the quarter- 
deck together in silence. Mr. Sharp was the first to speak. 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


251 

“ The emotions natural to such an alarm,” he said, “ have 
caused Miss Effingham to betray an incognito of mine, that I 
fear you find sufficiently absurd. It was quite accidental, I do 
assure you ; as much so, perhaps, as it was motiveless.” 

“ Except as you might distrust American democracy,” re- 
turned Paul, smiling, “ and feel disposed to propitiate it by a 
temporary sacrifice of rank and title.” 

“ I declare you do me injustice. My man, whose name is 
Sharp, had taken the stateroom, and, finding myself addressed 
by his appellation, I had the weakness to adopt it, under the 
impression it might be convenient in a packet. Had I antici- 
pated, in the least, meeting with the Effinghams, I should not 
have been guilty of the folly, for Mr. and Miss Effingham are 
old acquaintances.” 

“ While you are thus apologizing for a venial offence, you 
forget it is to a man guilty of the same error. I knew your 
person, from having seen you on the Continent ; and finding 
you disposed to go by the homely name of Sharp, in a moment 
of thoughtlessness, I took its counterpart, Blunt. A travelling 
name is sometimes convenient, though sooner or later I fancy 
all deception bring with them their own punishments.” 

“ It is certain that falsehood requires to be supported by 
falsehood. Having commenced in untruth, would it not be ex- 
pedient to persevere until we reach America ? I, at least, can- 
not now assert a right to my proper name, without deposing an 
usurper ? ” 

“It will be expedient for you, certainly, if it be only to es- 
cape the homage of that double-distilled democrat, Mr. Dodge. 
As for myself, few care enough about me to render it a matter 
of moment how I am styled ; though, on the whole, I should 
prefer to let things stand as they are, for reasons I cannot well 
explain.” 

No more was said on the subject, though both understood 
that the old appellations were to be temporarily continued. 
Just as this brief dialogue ended, the rest of the party ap- 
peared on deck. All preserved a forced calmness, though the 
paleness of the ladies betrayed the intense anxiety they felt. 
Eve struggled with her fears on account of her father, who had 
trembled so violently, when the truth was first told him, as to 
be quite unmanned, but who now comported himself with 
dignity, though oppressed with apprehensions almost to an- 
guish. John Effingham was stern, and in the bitterness of his 
"first sensations he had muttered a few imprecations on his own 
folly, in suffering himself to be thus caught without arms. 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


252 

Once the terrible idea of the necessity of sacrificing Eve, in the 
last resort, as an expedient preferable to captivity, had flashed 
across his mind ; but the real tenderness he felt for her, and 
his better nature, soon banished the unnatural thought. Still, 
when he joined the party on deck, it was with a general but 
vague impression, that the moment was at hand when circum- 
stances had required that they were all to die together. No 
one was more seemingly collected than Mademoiselle Viefvilie. 
Her life had been one of sacrifices, nad she had now made up 
her mind that it was to pass away in a scene of violence ; and, 
with a species of heroism that is natural, her feelings had been 
aroused to a sort of Roman firmness, and she was prepared to 
meet her fate with a composure equal to that of the men. 

These were the first feelings and impressions of those who 
had been awakened from the security of the night, to hear the 
tale of their danger ; but they lessened as the party collected 
in the open air, and began to examine into their situation by 
means of the steadily increasing light. As the day advanced, 
Paul Blunt, in particular, carefully examined the rocks near the 
ship, even ascending to the foretop, from which elevation he 
overlooked the whole line of the reef ; and something like 
hope revived in every bosom when he proclaimed the joyful in- 
telligence that nothing having life was visible in that direction. 

“ God be praised S ’’ he said with fervor, as his foot touched 
the deck again on descending ; “ we have at least a respite 
from the attacks of these barbarians. The tide has risen so 
high that they dare not stay on the rocks, lest they might be 
cut off ; for they probably think us stronger than we are, and 
armed. The light gun on the forcastle is loaded, gentlemen, 
though not shotted ; for there are no shot in the vessel, Saun- 
ders tells me ; and I would suggest the propriety of firing it, 
both to alarm the Arabs, and as a signal to our friends. The 
distance from the wreck is not so great but it might be heard, 
and I think they would at least send a boat to our relief. 
Sound flies fast, and a short time may bring us succor. The 
water will not be low enough for our enemies to venture on the 
reef again, under six or eight hours, and all may yet be well.” 

This proposal was discussed, and it proving, on inquiry, that 
all the powder in the ship, after loading the gun for this very 
purpose of firing a signal, had been taken in the boats, and 
that no second discharge could be made, it was decided to lose 
no more time, but to let their danger be known to their friends 
at once, if it were possible to send the sound so far. When 

this decision was come to, Mr. Blunt, aided bv Mr. Sharp, 

• " 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


2 53 

made the necessary preparations without delay. The latter, 
though doing all he could to assist, envied the readiness, prac- 
tical skill and intelligence, with which his companion, a man 
of cultivated and polished mind in higher things, performed 
every requisite act that was necessary to effect their purpose. 
Instead of hastily discharging the piece* an iron four-pound 
gun, Mr. Blunt first doubled the wad, which he drove home 
with all his force, and then he greased the muzzle, as he said, 
to increase the report. 

“ I shall not attempt to explain the philosophy of this,” he 
added with a mournful smile, “ but all lovers of salutes and 
salvos will maintain that it is useful ; and be it so or not, too 
much depends on our making ourselves heard, to neglect any- 
thing that has even a chance of aiding that one- great object. 
If you will now assist me, Sir George, we will run the gun over 
to starboard, in order that it may be fired on the side next the - 
wreck.” 

“Judging from the readiness you have shown on several 
occasions, as well as your familiarity with the terms, I should 
think you had served,” returned the real baronet, as he helped 
his companion to place the gun at a port on the northern side 
of the vessel. 

“ You have not mistaken my trade. I was certainly bred, 
almost born, a seaman ; and though as a traveller I have now 
been many years severed from my early habits, little of what I 
knew has been lost. Were there five others here, who had as 
much familiarity as myself with vessels, I think we could carry 
the ship outside the reef, crippled as she is, and set the Arabs 
at defiance. Would to God our worthy captain had never 
brought her inside.”- 

“ He did all for the best, no doubt ? ” 

“ Beyond a question ; and no more than a commendable 
prudence required. Still he has left us in a most critical posi- 
tion. This priming is a little damp, and I distrust it. The 
coal, if you please.” 

“ Why do you not fire ? ” 

“ At the last moment, I almost repent of my own expedient. 
Is it quite certain no pistols remain among any of our effects ?” 

“ I fear not. Saunders reports that all, even to those of 
the smallest size, were put in requisition for the boats.” 

“ The charge in this gun might serve for many pistols, or for 
several fowling-pieces. . I might even sweep the reef, on an 
emergency, by using old iron for shot ! It appears like part- 


HOME WARD BOUND . 


254 

ing with a last friend, to part with this single precious charge 
of gunpowder. ,, 

“ Nay, you certainly know best ; though I rather think the 
Messrs. Effingham are of your first opinion.” 

“ It is puerile to waver on such a subject, and I will hesitate 
no longer. There are moments when the air seems to float in 
the direction of our friends ; on the first return of one of those 
currents, I will fire.” 

A minute brought the opportunity, and Paul Blunt, or Paul 
Powis, .as his real name would now appear to be, applied the 
coal. The report was sharp and lively; but as the smoke 
floated away, he again expressed his doubts of the wisdom of 
what had just been done. Had he then known that the strug- 
gling sounds had diffused themselves in their radii, without 
reaching the wreck, his regrets would have been increased four- 
fold. This was a fact, however, that could not be then ascer- 
tained, and those in the packet were compelled to wait two or 
three hours before they even got the certainty of their failure. 

As the light increased a view was obtained of the shore, 
which seemed as silent and deserted as the reef. For half an 
hour the whole party experienced the revulsion of feeling that 
accompanies all great changes of emotion, and the conversa- 
tion had even got to be again cheerful, and to turn into its 
former channels, when suddenly a cry from Saunders renewed 
the alarm. The steward was preparing the breakfast in the 
gallery, from which he gave occasional glances towards the 
land, and his quick eye had been the first to„ detect a new and 
still more serious danger that now menaced them. 

A long train of camels was visible, travelling across the 
desert, and holding its way towards the part of the reef which 
touched the shore. At this point, too, were now to be seen 
some twenty Arabs, waiting the arrival of their friends ; among 
whom it was fair to conclude were those who had attempted to 
carry the ship by surprise. As the events which next followed 
were closely connected with the policy and forbearance of the 
party of barbarians near the wreck, this will be a suitable oc- 
casion to explain the motives of the latter, in not assailing 
Captain Truck, and the real state of things among these chil- 
dren of the desert. 

The Dane had been driven ashore, as conjectured, in the 
last gale, and the crew had immediately been captured by 
a small wandering party of the Arabs, with whom the coast 
was then lined ; as is usually the case immediately after tem- 
pestuous weather. Unable to carry off much of the cargo, this 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


2 55 


party had secured the prisoners, and hurried inland to an oasis, 
to give the important intelligence to their friends ; leaving 
scouts on the shore, however, that they might be early apprised 
of any similar disaster, or of any change in the situation of 
their present prize. These scouts had discovered the Mon- 
tauk, drifting along the coast, dismasted and crippled, and 
they had watched her to her anchorage within the reef. The 
departure of her boats had been witnessed, and though unable 
to foresee the whole object of this expedition, the direction 
taken pointed out the wreck as the point of destination. All 
this, of course, had been communicated to the chief men of the 
different parties on the coast, of which there were several, who 
had agreed to unite their forces to secure the second ship, and 
then to divide the spoils. $ 

When the Arabs reached the coast near the wreck, that 
morning, the elders among them were not slow in comprehend- 
ing the motives of the expedition ; and having gained a pretty 
accurate idea of the number of men employed about the Dane, 
they had come to the just conclusion that few were left in the 
vessel at anchor. They had carried off the spy-glass of their 
prize too, and several among them knew its use, from having 
seen similar things in other stranded ships. By means of this 
glass, they discovered the number and quality of those on board • 
the Montauk, as soon as there was sufficient light, and directed 
their own operations accordingly. The parties that had ap- 
peared and disappeared behind the sandy ridges of the desert, 
about the time at which we have now arrived in the narrative, 
and those who have been already mentioned in a previous 
chapter, were those who came from the interior, and those who 
went in the direction 'of the reef ; the first of the latter of which 
Saunders had just discovered. Owing to the rounded forma- 
tion of the coast, and to the intervention of a headland, the 
distance by water between the two ships was quite double that 
by land between the two encampments, and those who now 
arrived abreast of the packet, deliberately pitched their tents, 
as if they, depended more on a display of their numbers for 
success than on concealment, and as if they felt no apprehen- 
sion of the return of the crew. 

When the gentlemen had taken a survey of this strong party, 
which numbered more than a hundred, they held a consultation 
of the course it would be necessary to pursue. To Paul Blunt, 
as an avowed seaman, and as one who had already shown the 
promptitude and efficiency of his resources, all eyes were 
turned in expectation of an opinion. 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


256 

“ So long as the tide keeps in,” this gentleman observed, 
“ I see no cause for apprehensions. We are beyond the reach 
of musketry, or at all events, any fire of the Arabs, at this dis- 
tance, must be uncertain and harmless ; and we have always the 
hope of the arrival of the boats. Should this fail us, and the 
tide fall this afternoon as low as it fell in the morning, our 
situation will indeed become critical. The water around the 
ship may possibly serve as a temporary protection, but the dis- 
tance to the reef is so small that it might be passed by swim- 
ming.” 

“ Surely we could make good the vessel against men raising 
themselves out of the water, and clambering up a vessel’s side ? ” 
said Mr. Sharp. 

“ It is probable we might, if unmolested from the shore. 
But, imagine twenty or thirty resolute swimmers to put off to- 
gether for different parts of the vessel, protected by the long 
muskets these Arabs carry, and you will easily conceive the 
hoplessness of any defence. The first man among us, who 
should show his person to meet the boarders, would be shot 
down like a dog.” 

“ It was a cruel oversight to expose us to this horrible fate ! ” 
exclaimed the appalled father. 

“ This is easier seen now than when the mistake was com- 
mitted,” observed John Effingham. “ As a seaman, and with 
his important object in view, Captain Truck acted for the best, 
and we should acquit him of all blame, let the result be what it 
may. Regrets are useless, and it remains for us to devise some 
means to arrest the danger by which we are menaced, before it 
be too late. Mr. Blunt, you must be our leader and counsellor ; 
is it not possible for us to carry the ship outside of the reef, and 
to anchor her beyond the danger of our being boarded ? ” 

“ I have thought of this expedient, and if we had a boat it 
might possibly be done, in this mild weather ; without a boat, 
it is impossible.” 

“ But we have a boat,” glancing his eye towards the launch 
that stood in the chocks or chucks. 

“ One that would be too unwieldy for our purposes, could it 
be got into the water ; a thing in itself that would be almost im- 
practicable for us to achieve,” 

A long silence succeeded, during which the gentlemen were 
occupied in the bootless effort of endeavoring to devise expe- 
dients to escape the Arabs ; bootless, because on such occasions, 
the successful measure is commonly the result of a sort of sud- 
den inspiration, rather than of continued and laborious thought. 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


2 57 


CHAPTER XXII. 

With religious awe 
Grief heard the voice of Virtue. No complaint 
The solemn silence broke. Tears ceased to flow. 

Glover. 

Hope is the most treacherous of all human fancies. So long 
as there is a plausible ground to expect relief from any particu- 
lar quarter, men will relax their exertions in the face of the 
most eminent danger, and they cling to their expectations long 
after reason has begun to place the chances of success on the 
adverse side of the scale. Thus it was with the party in the 
Montauk. Two or three precious hours were lost in the idle 
belief that the gun would be heard by Captain Truck, and that 
they might momentarily look for the appearance of, at least, one 
of the boats. 

Paul Blunt was the first to relinquish this delusion. He 
knew that, if it reached their friends at all, the report must have 
been heard in a few seconds, and he knew, also, that it pecu- 
liarly belonged to the profession of a seaman to come to quick 
decisions. An hour of smart rowing would bring the cutter from 
the wreck to the headland, where it would be visible, by means 
of a glass, from the foretop. Two hours had now passed away 
and no signs of any boat were to be discovered, and the young 
man felt reluctantly compelled to yield all the strong hopes of 
timely aid that he had anticipated from this quarter. John 
Effingham, who had much more energy of character than his 
kinsman, though not more personal fortitude and firmness, was 
watching the movements of their young leader, and he read the 
severe disappointment in his face, as he descended the last time 
from the top, where he had often been since the consultation, to 
look out for the expected succor. 

“ I see it in your countenance,” said that gentleman ; “ we 
have nothing to look for from the boats. Our signal has not 
been heard.” 

“ There is no hope, and we are now thrown altogther on 
our own exertions, aided by the kind providence of God.” 

“ This calamity is so sudden and so dire, that I can scarcely 
credit it ! Are we then truly in danger of becoming prisoners 
to barbarians ? Is Eve Effingham, the beautiful, innocent, 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


258 

good, angelic daughter of my cousin, to be their victim !-— 
perhaps the inmate of a seraglio ! ” 

“ There is the pang ! Had a thousand bodies, a thousand 
lives, I could give all of the first to unmitigated suffering, lay 
down all the last to avert so shocking a calamity. Do you 
think the ladies are sensible of their real situation ? ” 

“ They are uneasy rather than terrified. In common with 
us all, they have strong hopes from the boats, though the con- 
tinued arrival of the barbarians, who are constantly coming into 
their camp, has helped to render them a little more conscious 
of the true nature of the danger.” 

Here Mr. Sharp, who stood on the hurricane-house, called 
out for the glass, in order to ascertain what a party of Arabs, 
who were collected near the in-shore end of the reef, were 
about. Paul Blunt went up to him, and made the examination. 
His countenance fell as he gazed, and an expression like that 
of hopelessness was again apparent on his fine features, when 
he lowered the glass. 

“ Here is some new cause of uneasiness ! ” 

“ The wretches have got a number of spars, and are lashing 
them together to form a raft. They are bent on our capture, 
and I see no means of preventing it.” 

“ Were we alone, men only, we might have the bitter con- 
solation of selling our lives dearly ; but it is terrible to have 
those with us whom we can neither save nor yet devote to a 
common destruction with our enemies ! ” 

“ It is indeed terrible, and the helplessness of our situation 
adds to its misery.” 

“ Can we not offer terms ? — Might not a promise of ransom, 
with hostages, do something ! I would cheerfully remain in the 
hands of the barbarians, in order to effect the release of the 
rest of the party.” 

Mr Blunt grasped his hand, and for a moment he envied 
the other the generous thought. But smiling bitterly, he shook 
his head, as. if conscious of the futility of even this desperate 
self-devotion. 

“ Gladly would I be your companion ; but the project is, 
in every sense, impracticable. Ransom they might consent to 
receive with us all in their power, but not on the condition of 
our being permitted to depart. Indeed, no means of quitting 
them would be left ; for, once in possession of the ship, as in a 
few hours they must be, Captain Truck, though having the 
boats, will be obliged to surrender for want of food, or to run 
the frightful hazard of attempting to reach the islands, on an 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


2 59 

allowance scarcely sufficient to sustain life under the most 
favorable circumstances. These flint-hearted monsters are 
surrounded by the desolation of their desert, and they are aware 
of all their appalling advantages.” 

“ The real state of things ought to be communicated to 
our friends, in order that they may be prepared for the worst.” 

To this Mr. Blunt agreed, and they went together to inform 
John Effingham of the new discovery. This stern-minded man 
was, in a manner, prepared for the worst, and he now agreed 
on the melancholy propriety of letting his kinsman know the 
actual nature of the new danger that threatened them. 

“ I will undertake this unpleasant office,” he said, “ though 
I could, in my inmost soul, pray that the necessity for it might 
pass away. Should the worst arrive, I have still hopes of 
effecting something by means of a ransom ; but what will have 
been the fate o| the youthful, and delicate, and lovely, ere we 
can make ourselves even comprehended by the barbarians ? A 
journey in the desert, as these journeys have been described 
to me, would be almost certain death to all but the strongest of 
our party, and even gold may fail of its usual power, when 
weighed against the evil nature of savages.” 

“ Is there no hope, then, really left us ? ” demanded Mr. 
Sharp, when the last speaker had left them to descend to the 
cabins. “ Is it not possible to get the boat into the water, and 
to make our escape in that ? ” 

“ That is an expedient of which I have thought, but it is 
next to impracticable. As anything is better than capture 
however, I will make one more close examination of the pro- 
ceedings of the demons, and look nearer into our own means.” 

Paul Blunt now got a lead and dropped it over the side of 
the ship, in the almost forlorn hope that possibly she might lie 
over some hole on the bottom. The soundings proved to be, 
as indeed he expected, but a little more than three fathoms. 

“ I had no reasftn to expect otherwise,” he said, as he drew 
in the line, though he spoke like a disappointed man. “ Had 
there been sufficient water the ship might have been scuttled, 
and the launch would have floated off the deck ; but as it is, 
we should lose the vessel without a sufficient object. It would 
appear heroic were you and I to contrive to get on the reef, 
and to proceed to the shore with a view to make terms with the 
Arabs ; but there could be no real use in it, asAhe treachery 
of their character is too well established to look for any benefit 
from such a step.” 

“ Might they not be kept in play, until our friends returned? 


26 o 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


Providence may befriend us in some unexpected manner in our 
uttermost peril.” 

“ We will examine them once more with the glass. By a 
movement among the Arabs, there has probably been a new 
accession to their numbers.” 

The two gentlemen now ascended to the top of the hurri- 
cane-house again, in feverish haste, and once more they ap- 
plied the instrument. A minute of close study induced Mr. 
Blunt to drop the glass, with an expression that denoted in- 
creased concern. 

“ Can anything possibly make our prospects worse ? ” eager- 
ly inquired his companion. 

“ Do you not remember a flag that was on board the Dane 
— that by which we identified his nation ? ” 

“ Certainly : it was attached to the halyards, and lay on the 
quarter-deck.” 

“ The flag is now flying in the camp of these barbarians ! 
You may see it, here, among the tents last pitched by the party 
that arrived while we were conversing forward.” 

“ And from this, you infer — ” 

“ That our people are captives ! That flag was in the ship 
when we left it ; had the Arabs returned before our party got 
there, the captain would have been back long ere this ; and in 
order to obtain this ensign they must have obtained possession 
of the wreck, after the arrival of the boats ; an event that could 
scarcely occur without a struggle : I fear the flag is a proof on 
which side the victory has fallen.” 

“ This then would seem to consummate our misfortunes ! ” 

“ It does indeed ; for the faint hope that existed, of being 
relieved by the boats, must now be entirely abandoned.” 

“ In the name of God, look again, and see in what condi- 
tion the wretches have got their raft ? ” 

A long examination followed, for on this point did the fate 
of all in the ship now truly seem to depend? 

“ They work with spirit,” said Mr. Blunt, when his exami- 
nation had continued a long time ; “ but it seems less like a 
raft than before — they are lashing spars together lengthwise — 
here is a drawing of hope, or what would be hope, rather, if 
the boats had escaped their fangs ! ” 

“Gock bless you for the words! — what is there encourag- 
ing?” 

“ It is not much,” returned Paul Blunt, with a mournful 
smile ; “ but trifles become of account in moments of extreme 
jeopardy. They are making a floating stage, doubtless with 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


261 


the intention to pass from the reef to the ship, and by veering 
on the chains we may possibly drop astern sufficiently to dis- 
appoint them in the length of their bridge. If I saw a hope of 
the final return of the boats, this expedient would not be with- 
out its use, particularly if delayed to the last moment, as it 
might cause the Arabs to lose another tide, and a reprieve of 
eight or ten hours is an age to men in our situation.” 

Mr. Sharp caught eagerly at this suggestion and the young 
men walked the deck together for half an hour, discussing its 
chances, and suggesting various means of turning it to the 
best account. Still, both felt convinced that the trifling delay 
which might thus be obtained, would, in the end, be perfectly 
useless, should Captain Truck and his party have really fallen 
into the hands of the common enemy. They were thus en- 
gaged, sometimes in deep despondency, and sometimes buoy- 
ant with revived expectations, when Saunders, on the part of 
Mr. Effingham, summoned them below. 

On reaching the cabin, whither both immediately hastened, 
the two gentlemen found the family party in the distress that 
the circumstances would naturally create. Mr. Effingham was 
seated, his daughter’s head resting on a knee, for she had 
thrown herself on the carpet, by his side. Mademoiselle Vief- 
ville paced the cabin, occasionally stopping to utter a few 
words of consolation to her young charge, and then again re- 
verting in her mind to the true dangers of their situation, with 
a force that completely undid all she had said, by betraying 
the extent of her own apprehensions. Ann Sidley knelt near 
her young mistress, sometimes praying fervently, though in 
silence, and at other moments folding her beloved in her' arms, 
as if to protect her from the ruffian grasp of the barbarians. 
The femme de chambre was sobbing in a stateroom, while John 
Effingham leaned, with his arms folded against a bulkhead, a 
picture of stern submission rather than of despair. The whole 
party was now assembled, with the exception of the steward, 
whose lamentations throughout the morning had not been noise- 
less, but who was left on deck to watch the movements of the 
Arabs. 

The moment was not one of idle forms, and Eve Effingham, 
who would have recoiled, under other circumstances, at being 
seen by her fellow travellers in her present situation, scarce 
raised her head, in acknowledgement of their melancholy salute, 
as they entered. She had been weeping, and her hair had 
fallen in profusion around her shoulders. The tears fell no 
longer, but a warm flushed look, one which denoted that a 


262 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


struggle of the mind had gotten the better of womanly emo- 
tions, had succeeded to deadly paleness, and rendered her love- 
liness of feature and expression bright and angelic. Both of 
the young men thought she had never seemed so beautiful, and 
both felt a secret pang, as the conviction forced itself on them, 
at the same instant, that this surpassing beauty was now likely to 
prove her most dangerous enemy. 

“ Gentlemen,” said Mr. Effingham, with apparent calmness, 
and a dignity that no uneasiness could disturb, “my kinsman 
has acquainted us with the hopeless nature of our condition, 
and I have begged the favor of this visit on your own account. 
We cannot separate ; the ties of blood and affection unite us, 
and our fate must be common ; but, on you there is no such 
obligation. Young, bold, and active, some plan may suggest 
itself, by which you may possibly escape the barbarians; and at 
least save yourselves. I know that generous temperaments 
like yours will not be disposed to listen, at first, to such a sug- 
gestion ; but reflection will tell you that it is for the interest of 
us all. You may let our fate be known, earlier than it other- 
wise would be, to those who will take immediate measures to 
procure our ransoms.” 

“ This is impossible ! ” Mr. Sharp said firmly. “ We can 
never quit you ; could never enjoy a moment’s peace under the 
consciousness of having been guilty of an act so selfish ! ” 

“ Mr. Blunt is silent,” continued Mr. Effingham, after a 
short pause, in which he looked from one of the young men to 
the other. “ He thinks better of my proposition, and will listen 
to his own best interests.” 

Eva raised her head quickly, but without being conscious 
of the anxiety she betrayed, and gazed with melancholy intent- 
ness at the subject of this remark. 

“ I do credit to the generous feelings of Mr. Sharp,” Paul 
Blunt now hurriedly answered, “ and should be sorry to admit 
that my own first impulses were less disinterested ; but I con- 
fess I have already thought of this, and have reflected on all 
the chances of success or. failure. It might be practicable for 
one who can swim easily to reach the reef ; thence to cross the 
inlet, and possibly to gain the shore under cover of the opposite 
range of rocks, which are higher than those near us : after 
which, by following the coast, one might communicate with the 
boats by signal, or even go quite to the wreck if necessary. 
All of this I have deliberated on, and once I had determined 
to propose it ; but — ” 

“ But what ? ” demanded Eve quickly. “ Why not execute 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


263 

this plan, and save yourself ? Is it a reason, because our case 
is hopeless, that you should perish ? Go, then, at once, for the 
moments are precious ; an hour hence, it may be too late.” 

“ Were it merely to save myself, Miss Effingham, do you 
really think me capable of this baseness ? ” 

“ I do not call it baseness. Why should we draw you down 
with us in our misery ? You have already served us, Powis, in 
a situation of terrible trials, and it is just that you should always 
devote yourself in behalf of those who seem fated never to do 
you good. My father will tell you he thinks it your duty now 
to save yourself if possible.” 

“ I think it the duty of every man,” mildly resumed Mr. 
Effngham, “ when no imperious obligation requires otherwise, 
to save the life and liberty which God has bestowed. These 
gentlemen have doubtless ties and claims on them that are in- 
dependent of us, and why should they inflict a pang on those 
who love them, in order to share in our disaster ? ” 

“This is placing useless speculations before a miserable 
certainty,” observed John Effingham. “As there can be ifb 
hope of reaching the boat, it is vain to discuss the propriety of 
the step.” 

“ Is this true, Powis ? Is there truly no chance of your es- 
caping. You. will not deceive us — deceive yourself — on a vain 
point of empty pride ! ” 

“ I can say with truth, almost with joy, for I thank God I 
am spared the conflict of judging between my duty £.nd my 
feelings, that there can no longer be any chance of finding the 
wreck in the possession' of our friends,” returned Paul fervently. 
“ There were moments when I thought the attempt should be 
made ; and it would perhaps have properly fallen to my lot to 
be the adventurer ; but we have now proof that the Arabs are 
masters, and if Captain Truck has escaped at all, it is under 
circumstances that scarcely admit the possibility of his being 
near the land. The whole coast must be watched and in 
possession of the barbarians, and one passing along it could 
hardly escape being seen.” 

“ Might you not escape into the interior, notwithstanding ? ” 
asked Eve, impetuously. 

“ With what motive ? To separate myself from those who 
have been my fellows in misfortune, only to die of want, or to 
fall into the hands of another set of masters ? It is every way 
our interest to keep together, and to let those already on the 
coast become our captors, as the booty of two ships may dis- 
pose them to be less exacting with their prisoners.” 


264 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


“ Slaves ! ” muttered John Effingham. 

His cousin bowed his head over the delicate form of Eve, 
which he folded with his arms, as if to shield it from the blasts 
and evils of the desert. 

“ As we may be separated immediately on being taken,” re- 
sumed Paul Blunt, “ it will be well to adopt some common 
mode of acting, and a uniform account of ourselves, in order 
that we may impress the barbarians with the policy of carrying 
us, as soon as possible into the vicinity of Mogadore, with a 
view to obtaining a speedy ransom.” 

“ Can any thing be better than the holy truth ? ” exclaimed 
Eve. “No, no, no ! Let us not deform this chastening act of 
God by coloring any thought or word with deception.” 

“ Deception in our case will hardly be needed ; but by un- 
derstanding those facts which will most probably influence the 
Arabs, we may dwell the most on them. We cannot do better 
than by impressing on the minds of our captors the circum- 
stances that this is no common ship, a fact their own eyes will 
Corroborate, and that we are not mere mariners, but passengers, 
who will be likely to reward their forbearance and moderation.” 

“ I think, sir,” interrupted Ann Sidley, looking up with tear- 
ful eyes from the spot where she still knelt, “ that if these 
people knew how much Miss Eve is sought and beloved, they 
might be led to respect her as she deserves, and this at least 
would ‘ temper the wind to the shorn lamb ! ’ ” 

“ Poor Nanny ! ” murmured Eve, stretching forth a hand to- 
ward her old nurse, though her face was still buried in her own 
hair, “ thou wilt soon learn that there is another leveller beside 
the grave ! ” 

“ Ma’am ! ” 

“ Thou wilt find that Eve, in the hands of barbarians, is 
not thy Eve. It will now become my turn to become a hand- 
maiden, and to perform for others offices a thousand times 
more humiliating that any thou hast ever performed for me.” 

Such a consummation of their misery had never struck the 
imagination of the simple-minded Ann, and she gazed at her 
child with tender concern, as if she distrusted her senses. 

“ This is too improbable, dear Miss Eve,” she said, “ and 
you will distress your father by talking so wildly. The Arabs 
are human beings though they are barbarians, and they will 
never dream of anything so wicked as this.” 

Mademoiselle Yiefville made a rapid and fervent ejaculation 
in her own language, that was keenly expressive of her own 
sense of misery, and Ann Sidley, who always felt uneasiness 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


265 

when anything was said affecting Eve that she could not under- 
stand, looked from one to the other, as if she demanded an ex- 
planation. 

“ Tin sure Mamerzelle cannot think any such thing likely to 
take place,” she continued more positively ; “ and, sir, you at 
least will not permit Miss Eve to torment herself with any no- 
tions as unreasonable, as monstrous as this ! ” 

“ We are in the hands of God, my worthy Ann, and you may 
live to see all your fixed ideas of propriety violated,” returned 
Mr. Effingham. “ Let us pray that we may not be separated, 
for there will at least be a tender consolation in being permitted 
to share our misery in company. Should we be torn asunder, 
then indeed will the infliction be one of insupportable agony ! ” 

“ And who will think of such a cruelty, sir ? Me they can- 
not separate from Miss Eve, fori am her servant, her own long- 
tried, faithful attendant, who first held her in arms, and nursed 
her when a helpless infant ; and you too, sir, you are her father, 
her own beloved revered parent ; and Mr. John, is he not her 
kinsman, of her blood and name ? And even Mamerzelle also 
has claims to remain with Miss Eve, for she has taught her 
many things, I daresay, that it is good to know. Oh ! no, no, 
no ! no one has a right to tear us asunder, and no one will have 
the heart to do it.” 

“Nanny, Nanny,” murmured Eve, “you do not, cannot 
know the cruel Arabs ! ” 

“ They cannot be crueller and more unforgiving than our 
own savages, ma’am, and they keep the mother with the child ; 
and when they spare life, they take the prisoners into their huts, 
and treat them as they treat their own. God has caused so 
many of the wicked to perish for their sins, in these eastern 
lands, that J no not think a man can be left that is wretch 
enouglTto harm one like Miss Eve. Take courage then, sir, 
and put your trust in his Holy Providence. I know the trial is 
hard to a tender father’s heart, but should their customs require 
them to keep the men and women asunder, and to separate you 
from your daughter, for a short time, remember that I shall be 
with her, as I was in her childhood, when, by the mercy of God, 
we carried her through so many mortal diseases in safety, and 
have got her, in the pride of her youth, without a blemish or a 
defect, the perfect creature she is.” 

“ If the world had no other tenants but such as you, devoted 
and simple-hearted woman, there would indeed be little cause 
for apprehension ; for you are equally unable to imagine wrong 
yourself, or to conceive it in others. It would remove a moun- 


266 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


tain from my heart, could I indeed believe that even you will 
be permitted to remain near this dependent and fragile girl 
during the months of suffering and anguish that are likely to 
occur.” 

“ Father,” said Eve, hurriedly drying her eyes, and rising 
to her fe.et with a motion so easy, and an effort so slight, that it 
appeared like the power of mere volition.— the superiority of 
the spirit over her light frame, — “ father, do not let a thought 
of me distress you at this awful moment. You have known me 
only in happiness and prosperity, — an indulged and indolent 
girl ; but I feel a force which is capable of sustaining me, even 
in this blank desert. The Arabs can have no other motive 
than to preserve us all, as captives likely to repay their care 
with a rich ransom. I know that a journey, according to their 
habits, will be painful and arduous, but it maybe borne. Trust, 
then, more to my spirit than to my feeble body, and you will 
find that I am not as worthless as I fear you fancy.” 

Mr. Effingham passed his arm round the slender waist of 
his child, and folded her almost frantically to his bosom. But 
Eve was aroused, and gently extricating herself, with bright 
but tearless eyes, she looked round at her companions, as if 
she would reverse the order of their sympathies, and direct 
them to their own wants and hazards. 

“ I know you think me the most exposed by this dreadful 
disaster,” she said ; “ that I may not be able to bear up against 
the probable suffering, and that I shall sink first, because I am 
the feeblest and frailest in frame ; but God permits the reed to 
bend, when the oak is destroyed. I am stronger, able to bear 
more than you imagine, and we shall all live to meet again, in 
happier* scenes, should it be our present hard fortune to be sep- 
arated.” 

As Eve spoke, she cast affectionate looks on those dear to 
her by habit, and blood, and services ; nor did she permit an 
unnecessary reserve at such a moment to prevent glances of 
friendly interest towards the young men, whose very souls 
seemed wrapped in her movements. Words of encouragement 
from such a source, however, only served to set the frightful 
truth more vividly before the minds of her auditors, and not one 
of them heard what she said who did not feel an awful presen- 
timent that a few weeks of the suffering of which she made so 
light, did she even escape a crueller fate, would consign that 
form, now so winning and lovely, to the sands. Mr. Effingham 
now rose, and for the first time the flood of sensations that had 
been so long gathering in his bosom, seemed ready to burst 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


267 

through the restraints of manhood. Struggling to command 
himself, he turned to his two young male companions, and 
spoke with an impressiveness and dignity that carried with 
them a double force, from the fact of his ordinary manners be- 
ing so tempered and calm. 

“Gentlemen,” he said, “we may serve each other, by 
coming to an understanding in time ; or at least you may con- 
fer on me a favor that a life of gratitude would not repay". You 
are young and vigorous, bold and intelligent, qualities that will 
command the respect of even savages. The chances that one 
of you will survive to reach a Christian land are much greater 
than those of a man of my years, borne down as I shall be with 
the never-dying anxieties of a parent.” 

“ Father ! father ! ” 

“ Hush ! darling : let me entreat these gentlemen to bear 
us in mind, should they reach a place of safety ; for after all, 
youth may do that in your behalf, which time will deny to John 
and myself. Money will be of no account, you know, to rescue 
my child from a fate far worse than death, and it may be some 
consolation to you. young men, to recollect, at the close of your 
careers, which I trust will yet be long and happy, that a parent, 
in his last moments, found a consolation in the justifiable hopes 
he had placed on your generous exertions.” 

“ Father, I cannot bear this ! For you to be the victim of 
these barbarians is too much ; and I would prefer trusting all 
to a raft on the terrible ocean, to incurring the smallest chance 
of such a calamity. Mademoiselle, you will join me in the en- 
treaty to the gentlemen to prepare a few planks to receive us, 
where we can perish together, and at least have the consolation 
of knowing that our eyes will be closed by friends. The long- 
est survivor will be surrounded and supported by the spirits of 
those who have gone before, into a world devoid of care.” 

“I have thought this from the first,” returned Mademoiselle 
Viefville in French, with an energy of manner that betokened a 
high and resolved character : “ I would not expose gentle- 
women to the insults and outrages of barbarians ; but did not 
wish to make a proposition that the feelings of others might 
reject.” 

“ It is a thousand times preferable to capture, if indeed it 
be practicable,” said John Effingham, looking inquiringly to- 
wards Paul. The latter, however, shook his head in the nega- 
tive, for, the wind blowing on the shore, he knew it would be 
merely meeting captivity without the appearance of a self-reli- 


268 


I-IOMEWARD BOUND. 


ance and dignity, that might serve to impress their captors 
favorably.” 

“ It is impossible,” said Eve, reading the meaning of the 
glances, and dropping on her knees before Mr. Effingham, 
“ well, then, may our trust be in God 1 We have yet a few 
minutes of liberty, and let them not be wasted idly, in vain re- 
grets. Father, kiss me, and give me once more that holy and 
cherished blessing, with which you used to consign me to sleep, 
in those days when we scarce dreamed of, never realized, mis- 
fortune.” 

“ Bless you, bless you, my babe ; my beloved, my cherished 
Eve ! ” said the father solemnly, but with a quivering lip. 
“ May that dread Being whose ways, though mysterious, are 
perfect wisdom and mercy, sustain you in this trial, and bring 
you at last, spotless in spirit and person, to his own mansions 
of peace. God took from me early thy sainted mother, and I 
had impiously trusted in the hope that thou wert left to be my 
solace in age. Bless you, my Eve ; I shall pray God, without 
ceasing, that you may pass away as pure and as worthy of his 
love, as her to whom thou owest thy being. 

John Effingham groaned ; the effort he made to repress his 
feelings causing the outbreaking of his soul to be deep though 
smothered. 

“ Father, let us pray together. Ann, my good Ann, thou 
who first taught me to lisp a thanksgiving and a request, kneel 
here by my side — and you, too, mademoiselle ; though of a dif- 
ferent creed, we have a common God ! Cousin John, you pray 
often, I know, though so little apt to show your emotions ; there 
is a place for you, too, with those of your blood. I know 
not whether these gentlemen are too proud to pray.” 

Both the young men knelt with the others, and there was 
a long pause in which the whole party put up their supplications, 
each according to his or her habits of thought. 

“ Father ! ” resumed Eve, looking up as she still knelt between 
the knees of Mr. Effingham, and smiling fondly in the face of 
him she so piously loved ; “ there is one precious hope of which 
even the barbarians cannot rob us : we may be separated here, 
but our final meeting rests only with God ! ” 

Mademoiselle Viefville passed an arm round the waist of 
her sweet pupil, and pressed her against her heart. 

“ There is but one abode for the blessed, my dear made- 
moiselle, and one expiation for us all.” Then rising from her 
knees, Eve said with the grace and dignity of a gentlewoman, 
“ Cousin Jack, kiss me ; we know not when another occasion 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


269 

may offer to manifest to each other our mutual regard. You 
have been a dear and indulgent kinsman to me, and should I 
live these twenty years a slave, I shall not cease to think of 
you with kindness and regret.” 

John Effingham folded the beautiful and ardent girl in his 
arms with the freedom and fondness of a parent. 

“ Gentlemen,” continued Eve, with a deepening color ; but 
with eyes that were kind and grateful, “ I thank you, too, for 
lending your supplications to ours. I know that young men in the 
pride of their security, seldom fancy such a dependence on God 
necessary ; but the strongest are overturned, and pride is a 
poor substitute for the hope of the meek. I believe you have 
thought better of me than I merit, and I should never cease to 
reproach myself with a want of consideration, did I believe 
that anything more than accident has brought you into 
this ill-fated vessel. Will you permit me to add one more obliga- 
tion to the many I feel to you both ? ” advancing nearer to them, 
and speaking lower ; “ you are young, and likely to endure bodily 
exposure better than my father — that we shall be separated 
I feel persuaded — and it might be in your power to solace a 
heart-broken parent. I see, I know, I may depend on your 
good offices.” 

“ Eve — my blessed daughter — my only, my beloved child ! ” 
exclaimed Mr. Effingham, who overheard her lowest syllable, 
so deathlike was the stillness of the cabin — “ come to me, 
dearest ; no power on earth shall ever tear us asunder ! ” 

Eve turned quickly, and beheld the arms of her parent ex- 
tended. She threw herself into them, when the pent and ir- 
resistible emotions broke loose in both, for they wept together, 
as she lay on his bosom, with a violence that in a man it was 
awfully painful to witness. 

Mr. Sharp had advanced to take the offered hand of Eve, 
when she suddenly left him for the purpose just mentioned, 
and he now felt the grasp of Paul’s fingers on his arm, as if 
they were about to penetrate the bone. Fearful of betraying 
the extent of their feelings, the two young men rushed on deck 
together, where they paced backward and forward for many 
minutes, quite unable to exchange a word, or even a look. 


270 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


CHAPTER XXIII. 

O Domine Deus ! speravi in te ; 

O care mi Jesu, nunc libera me : — 

In dura catena, 

In miserera poena, 

Desidero te — 

Languendo, gemendo 
Et genuflectendo, 

Adora, imploro, ut liberes me. 

Queen Mary. 

The sublime consolations of religion were little felt by either 
of the two generous minded and ardent young men who were 
pacing the deck of the Montauk. The gentle and the plastic 
admit the most readily of the divine influence ; and of all on 
board the devoted vessel at that moment, they who were the 
most resigned to their fate were those who by their physical 
force were the least able to endure it. 

“This heavenly resignation/’ said Mr. Sharp, half whisper- 
ing, “ is even more heartrending than the outbreakings of de- 
spair.” 

“ It is frightful ! ” returned his companion. “ Anything is 
better than passive submission in such circumstances. I see 
but little, indeed no hope of escape ; but idleness is torture. If 
I endeavor to raise this boat, will you aid me ? ” 

“ Command me like your slave. Would to Heaven there 
were the faintest prospect of success ! ” 

“ There is but little ; and should we even succeed, there are 
no means of getting far from the ship in the launch, as all the 
oars have been carried off by the captain, and I can hear of 
neither masts nor sails. Had we the latter, with this wind which 
is beginning to blow, we might indeed prolong the uncertainty, 
by getting on some of those more distant spits of sand.” 

“ Then, in the name of the blessed Maria ! ” exclaimed one 
behind them in French, “ delay not an instant, and all on board 
will join in the labor ! ” 

The gentlemen turned in surprise, and beheld Mademoi- 
selle Viefville standing so near them as to have overheard their 
conversation. Accustomed to depend on herself, coming of a 
people among whom woman is more energetic and useful, per- 
haps, than in any other Christian nation, and resolute of spirit 
naturally, this cultivated and generous female had come on deck 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


271 

purposely to see if indeed there remained no means by which 
they might yet escape the Arabs. Had her knowledge of a 
vessel at all equalled her resolution, it is probable that many 
fruitless expedients would already have been adopted ; but find- 
ing herself in a situation so completely novel as that of a ship, 
until now she had found no occasion to suggest anything to 
which her companions would be likely to lend themselves. But, 
seizing the hint of Paul, she pressed it on him with ardor, and, 
after a few minutes of urging, by her zeal and persuasion she 
prevailed on the two gentlemen to commence the necessary pre- 
parations without further delay. John Effingham and Saunders 
were immediately summoned by Mademoiselle Viefville herself, 
who, once engaged in the undertaking, pursued it fervently, 
while she went in person into the cabins to make the necessary 
preparations connected with their subsistence and comforts, 
should they actually succeed in quitting the vessel. 

No experienced mariner could set about the work with more 
discretion, or with a better knowledge of what was necessary to 
be done, than Mr. Blunt now showed. Saunders was directed 
to clear the launch, which had a roof on it, and still contained 
a respectable provision of poultry, sheep and pigs. The roof 
he was told not to disturb, since it might answer as a substitute 
for a deck ; but everything was passed rapidly from the inside 
of the boat, which the steward commenced scrubbing and clean- 
ing with an assiduity that he seldom manifested in his cabins. 
Fortunately the tackles with which Mr. Leach had raised the 
sheers and stepped the jury-mast the previous morning were still 
lying on the deck, and Paul was spared the labor of reeving new 
ones, He went to work, therefore, to get up two on the sub- 
stitute for a main-stay ; a job that he had completed, through 
the aid of the two gentlemen on deck, by the time Saunders 
pronounced the boat to be in a fit condition to receive its cargo. 
The gripes were now loosened, and the fall of one of the tackles 
was led to the capstan. 

By this time Mademoiselle Viefville, by her energy and 
decision, had so far aroused Eve and her woman, that Mr. 
Effingham had left his daughter, and appeared on deck among 
those who were assisting Paul. So intense was the interest, 
however, which all took in the result, that the ladies, and even 
Ann Sidley, with the femme de chambre , suspended their own 
efforts, and stood clustering around the capstan as the gentle- 
men began to heave, almost breathless between their doubts 
and hopes ; for it was a matter of serious question whether 
there was sufficient force to lift so heavy a body at all. Turn 


272 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


after turn was made, the fall gradually tightened, until those at 
the bars felt the full strain of their utmost force. 

“ Heave together, gentlemen,” said Paul Blunt, who di- 
rected everything, besides doing so much with his own hands. 
“ We have its weight now, and all we gain is so much towards 
lifting the boat.” 

A steady effort was continuted for two or three minutes, 
with but little sensible advantage, when all stopped for breath. 

“ I fear it will surpass our strength,” observed Mr. Sharp. 
“ The boat seems not to have moved, and the ropes are 
stretched in a way to menace parting.” 

“ We want but the force of a boy added to our own,” said 
Paul, looking doubtingly towards the females ; “ in such cases, 
a pound counts for a ton.” 

“ Allons ! ” cried Mademoiselle Viefville, motioning to the 
femme de chambre to follow ;* “ we will not be defeated for the 
want of such a trifle.” 

These two resolute women applied their strength to. the 
bars, and the power, which had been so equally balanced, pre- 
ponderated in favor of the machine. The capstan, which a 
moment before was scarcely seen to turn, and that only by short 
and violent efforts, now moved steadily but slowly round, and 
the end of the launch rose. Eve was only prevented from join- 
ing the laborers by Nanny, who held her folded in her arms, 
fearful that some accident might occur to injure her. 

Paul Blunt now cheerfully announced the certainty that 
they had a force sufficient to rise the boat, though the opera- 
tion would still be long and laborious. We say cheerfully ; for 
while this almost unhoped-for success promised little relief in 
the end, there is always something buoyant and encouraging 
in success of any sort. 

“ We are masters of the boat,” he said, “ provided the 
Arabs do not molest us ; and we may drift away, by means of 
some contrivance of a sale, to such a distance as will keep us 
out of their power, until all chance of seeing our friends again 
is finally lost.” 

“ This then is a blessed relief ! ” exclaimed Mr. Effingham ; 
“ and God may yet avert from us the bitterest portion of this 
calamity ! ” 

The pent emotions again flowed, and Eve once more wept 
in her father’s arms, a species of holy joy mingling with her 
tears. In the mean time, Paul, having secured the fall by 
which they had just been heaving, brought the other to the cap- 
stan, when the operation was renewed with the same success. 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


273 


In this manner in the course of half an hour the launch hung 
suspended from the stay, at a sufficient height to apply the 
yard-tackles. As the latter, however, were not aloft, Paul hav- 
ing deemed it wise to ascertain their ability to lift the boat at 
all, before he threw away so much toil, the females renewed 
their preparations in the cabins, while the gentlemen assisted 
the young sailor in getting up the purchases. During this 
pause in the heaving, Saunders was sent below to search for sails 
and the masts, both of which Paul thought must be somewhere 
in the ship, as he found the launch was fitted to receive them. 

It was apparent, in the mean time, that the Arabs watched 
their proceedings narrowly ; for the moment Paul appeared on 
the yard a great movement took place among them and several 
muskets were discharged in the direction of the ship, though 
the distance rendered the fire harmless. The gentlemen ob- 
served with concern, however, that the balls passed the vessel, 
a fearful proof of the extraordinary power of the arms used by 
the barbarians. Luckily the reef, which by this time was nearly 
bare ahead of the ship, was still covered in a few places nearer 
to the shore to a depth that forbade a passage, except by swim- 
ming. John Effingham, however, who was examining the pro- 
ceedings of the Arabs with a glass, announced that a party 
appeared disposed to get on the naked rocks nearest the ship, 
as they had left the shore, dragging some light spars after them, 
with which they seemed to be about to bridge the different 
spots of deep water, most of which were sufficiently narrow to 
admit of being passed in this manner. 

Although the operation commenced by the Arabs would 
necessarily consume a good deal of time, this intelligence 
quickened the movements of all in the ship. Saunders, in par- 
ticular, who had returned to report his want of success, worked 
with redoubled zeal ; for, as is usual with those who are the 
least fortified by reason, he felt the greatest horror of falling 
into the hands of barbarians. It was a slow and laborious 
thing, notwithstanding, to get upon the yards the heavy blocks 
and falls ; and had not Paul Blunt been quite as conspicuous 
for personal strength as he was ready and expert in a knowl- 
edge of his profession, he would not have succeeded in the 
unaided effort ; — unaided aloft, though the others, of course, re- 
lieved him much by working at the whips on deck. At length 
this important arrangement was effected, the young man de- 
scended, and the capstan was again manned. 

This time the females were not required, it being in the 
power of the gentlemen to heave the launch out to the side of 


2 7 4 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


the ship, Paul managing the different falls so adroitly, that the 
heavy boat was brought so near and yet so much above the 
rail, as to promise to clear it. John Effingham now stood at 
one of the stay-tackle falls, and Paul at the other, when the 
latter made a signal to ease away. The launch settled slowly 
towards the side of the vessel until it reached the rail, against 
which it lodged. Catching a turn with his fall, Mr. Blunt 
sprang forward, and bending beneath the boat, he saw that its 
keel had hit a belaying-pin. One blow from a capstan-bar 
cleared away this obstruction, and the boat swung off. The 
stayrtackle falls were let go entirely, and all on board saw, with 
an exultation that words can scarcely describe, the important 
craft suspended directly over the sea. No music ever sounded 
more sweetly to the listeners than the first plash of the massive 
boat as it fell heavily upon the surface of the water. Its size, 
its roof, and its great strength gave it an appearance of security, 
that for the moment deceived them all ; for, in contemplating 
the advantage they had so unexpectedly gained, they forgot the 
many obstacles that existed to their availing themselves of it. 

It was not many minutes .before Paul was on the roof of 
the launch, had loosened the tackles, and had breasted the 
boat to, at the side of the ship, in readiness to receive the 
stores that the females had collected. In order that the reader 
may better understand the nature of the ark that was about to 
receive those who remained in the Montauk, however, it may 
be well to describe it. 

The boat itself was large, strong, and capable of resisting a 
heavy sea when well managed, and, of course, unwieldy in pro- 
portion. To pull it, at a moderate rate, eight or ten large oars 
were necessary ; whereas, all the search of the gentlemen could 
not find one. They succeeded, however, in discovering a rud- 
der and tiller, appliances not always used in launches, and 
Paul Blunt shipped them instantly. Around the gunwales of 
the boat, stanchions, which sustained a slightly-rounded roof, 
were fitted, a provision that it is usual to make in the packets, 
in order to protect the stock they carry against the weather. 
This stock having been turned loose on the deck, and the inte- 
rior cleaned, the latter now presented a snug and respectable 
cabin ; one coarse and cramped, compared with those of the 
ship certainly, but on the other hand, one that might be well 
deemed a palace by shipwrecked mariners. As it would be 
possible to retain this roof until compelled by bad weather to 
throw it away, Paul, who had never before seen a boat afloat 
with such a canopy, regarded it with delight ; for it promised 




HOMEWARD BOUND . 


2 75 


a protection to that delicate form he so much cherished in his 
inmost heart, that he had not even dared t*o hope for. Between 
the roof and the gunwale of the boat, shutters buttoned in, so 
as to fill the entire space ; and when these were in thefr places, 
the whole of the interior formed an enclosed apartment, of a 
height sufficient to allow even a man to stand erect without his 
hat. It is true, this arrangement rendered the boat clumsy, 
and, to a certain extent, top-heavy and unmanageable ; but so 
long as it could be retained, it also rendered it infinitely more 
comfortable than it could possibly be without it. The roof, 
moreover, might be cut away in five minutes, at any time, 
should circumstances require it. 

Paul had just completed a hasty survey of his treasure, for 
such he now began to consider the launch, when casting his 
eye upward, with the intention to mount the ship’s side, he saw 
Eve looking down at him, as if to read their fate in the ex- 
pression of his own countenance, 

“ The Arabs,” she hurriedly remarked, “ are moving along 
the reef, .as my father says, faster than he could wish, and all 
our hopes are centred in you and the boat. The first, I know, 
will not fail us, so long as means allow ; but can we do any- 
thing with the launch ? ” 

“ For the first time, dearest Miss Effingham, I see a little 
chance of rescuing ourselves from the grasp of these barbarians. 
There is no time to lose, but everything must be passed into 
the boat with as little delay as possible.” 

“ Bless you, bless you, Powis, for this gleam of hope ! 
Your words are cordials, and our lfves can scarcely serve to 
prove the gratitude we owe you.” 

This was said naturally, and as one expresses a strong feel- 
ing, without reflection, or much weighing of words ; but even 
at that fearful moment, it thrilled on every pulse of the young 
man. The ardent look that he gave the beautiful girl caused 
her to redden to the temples, and she hastily withdrew. 

The gentlemen now began to pass into the boat the different 
things that had been provided, principally by the foresight of 
Mademoiselle Viefville, where they were received by Paul who 
thrust them beneath the roof without stopping to lose the pre- 
cious moments in stowage. They included mattrasses, the 
trunks that contained their ordinary sea-attire, or those that 
were not stowed in the baggage-room, blankets, counterpanes, 
potted meats, bread, wine, various condiments and prepared 
food, from the stores of Saunders, and generally such things 
as had presented themselves in the hurry of the moment. 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


276 

Nearly half of the articles were rejected by Paul, as unneces- 
sary, though he received many in consideration of the delicacy 
of his feebler companions, which would otherwise have been 
cast aside. When he found, however, that food enough had 
been passed into the boat to supply the wants of the whole 
party for several weeks, he solicited a truce, declaring it in- 
discreet to render themselves uselessly uncomfortable in this 
manner, to say nothing of the effect on the boat. The greater 
requisite, water, was still wanting, and he now desired that the 
two domestics might get into the boat to arrange the different 
articles, while he endeavored to find something that might 
serve as a substitute for sails, and obtain the all-important 
supply. 

His attention was first given to the water, without which 
all the other preparations would be rendered totally useless. 
Before setting about this, however, he stole a moment to look 
into the state of things among the Arabs. It was indeed time, 
for the tide had now fallen so low as to leave the rocks nearly 
bare, and several hundreds of the barbarians were advancing 
along the reef, towing their bridge, the slow progress of which 
alone prevented them from coming up at once to the point 
opposite the ship. Paul saw there was not a moment to lose, 
and, calling Saunders, he hurried below. 

Three or four small casks were soon found, when the ste- 
ward brought them to the tank to be filled. Luckily the water 
had not to be pumped off, but it ran in a stream into the 
vessel that was placed to receive it. As soon as one cask was 
ready, it was carried on deck by the gentlemen, and was struck 
into the boat with as little delay as possible. The shouts of 
the Arabs now became audible, even to those who were below, 
and it required great steadiness of nerve to continue the all- 
important preparation. At length the last of the casks was 
filled, when Paul rushed on deck, for, by this time, the cries of 
the barbarians proclaimed their presence near the ship. When 
he reached the rail, he found the reef covered with them, some 
hailing the vessel, others menacing, hundreds still busied with 
their floating bridge while a few endeavored to frighten those 
on board by discharging their muskets over their heads. 
Happily, aim was impossible, so long as care was taken not to 
expose the body above the bulwarks. 

“ We have not a moment to lose ! ” cried Mr. Efflngham 
on whose bosom Eve lay, nearly incapable of motion. “ The 
food and water are in the boat, and in the name of a merciful 
God, let us eapecs from this scene of frightful barbarity ? ” 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


. 2 77 

“ The danger is not yet so inevitable,” returned Paul, 
steadily. “ Frightful and pressing as it truly seems, we have a 
few minutes to think in. Let me entreat that Miss Effing- 
ham and Mademoiselle Viefville will receive a drop of this 
cordial.” 

He poured into a glass a restorative from a bottle that had 
been left on the capstan as superfluous, in the confusion of 
providing stores, and held it to the pallid lips of Eve. As she 
swallowed a mouthful, nearly as helpless as the infant that re- 
ceives nourishment from the hand of its nurse, the blood re- 
turned, and raising herself from her father’s arms, she smiled, 
though with an effort, and thanked him for his care. 

“ It was a dread moment,” she said, passing a hand over 
her brow ; “ but it is past, and I am better. Mademoiselle 
Viefville will be obliged to you, also, for a little of this.” 

The firm-minded and spirited Frenchwoman, though pale 
as death, and evidently suffering under extreme apprehension, 
put aside the glass courteously, declining its contents. 

“ We are sixty fathoms from the rocks,” said Paul calmly, 
“ and they must cross this ditch yet, to reach us. None of 
them seem disposed to attempt it by swimming, and their 
bridge, though ingeniously put together, may not prove long 
enough.” 

“ Would it be safe for the ladies to get into the boat where 
she lies, exposed as they would be to the muskets of the 
Arabs ? ” inquired Mr. Sharp. 

“ All that shall be remedied,” returned Paul. “ I cannot 
quit the deck; would you,” slightly bowing to Mr. Sharp, “go 
below again with Saunders, and look for some light sail ? with- 
out one, we cannot move away from the ship, even when in the 
boat. I see a suitable spar and necessary rigging on deck ; 
but the canvas must be looked for in the sail-room. It is a 
nervous thing, I confess, to be below at such a moment ; but 
you have too much faith in us to dread being deserted.” 

Mr. Sharp grasped the hand as a pledge of a perfect reli- 
ance on the other’s faith, but he could not speak. Calling 
Saunders, the steward received his instructions, when the two 
went hastily below. 

“ I could wish the ladies were in the boat with their 
women,” said Paul, for Ann Sidley and the femme de chavibre 
were still in the launch, busied in disposing of its mixed cargo 
of stores, though concealed from the Arabs by the roof and 
shutters ; “ but it would be hazardous to attempt it while ex- 
posed to the fire from the reef. We shall have to change 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


278 

the position of the ship in the end, and it may as well be done 
at once.” 

Beckoning to John Effingham to follow, he went forward to 
examine into the movements of the Arabs, once more, before 
he took any decided step. The two gentlemen placed them- 
selves behind the high defences of the forecastle, where they 
had a fair opportunity of reconnoitring their assailants, the 
greater height of the ship’s deck completely concealing all that 
had passed on it from the sight of those on the rocks. 

The barbarians', who seemed to be, and who in truth were, 
fully apprised of the defenceless and feeble condition of the 
party on board, were at work, without the smallest apprehension 
of receiving any injury from that quarter. Their great object was 
to get possession of the ship, before the returning water should 
again drive them from the rocks. In order to effect this, they 
had placed all who were willing and sufficiently subordinate on 
the bridge, though a hundred were idle, shouting, clapping 
their hands, menacing, and occasionally discharging a musket, 
of which there were probably fifty in their possession. 

“ They work with judgment at their pontoon,” said Paul, 

. after he had examined the proceedings of those on the reef for 
a few minutes. “ You may perceive that they have dragged 
the outer end of the bridge up to windward, and have just 
shoved it from the rocks with the intention to permit it to drift 
round, until it shall bring up against the bows of the ship, when 
they will pour on board like so many tigers. It is a dis- 
jointed and loose contrivance, that the least sea would de- 
range ; but in this perfectly smooth water it will answer their 
purpose. It moves slowly, but will surely drift round upon us 
in the course of fifteen or twenty minutes more ; and of this 
they appear to be quite certain themselves, for they seem as 
well satisfied with their work as if already assured of its com- 
plete success.” 

“ It is, then, important to us to be prompt, since our time 
will be so brief.” 

“ We will be prompt, but in another mode. If you will 
assist me a little, I think this effort, at least, may be easily 
defeated, after which it will be time enough to think of escape. 

Paul, aided by John Effingham, now loosened the chains 
altogether from the bitts, and suffered the ship to drop astern. 
As this was done silently and stealthily, it occupied several 
minutes ; but the wind being by this time fresh, the huge mass 
yielded to its power with certainty ; and when the bridge had 
floated round in a direct line from the reef, or dead to leeward, 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


2 79 

there was a space of water between its end and the ship of 
more than a hundred feet. The Arabs had rushed on it in 
readiness to board ; but they set up a yell of disappointment 
as soon as the truth was discovered. A tumult followed ; 
several fell from the wet and slippery spars ; but, after a short 
time wasted in confusion and clamor, the directions of their 
chiefs were obeyed, and they set to work with energy to break 
up their bridge, in order to convert its materials into a raft. 

By this time Mr. Sharp and Saunders had returned, bringing 
with them several light sails, such as spare royals and top-gal- 
lant studding-sails. Paul next ordered a spare mizzen-top-gal- 
lant mast, with a top-gallant studding-sail boom, and a quantity 
of light rope to be laid in the gangway, after which he set about 
the final step. As time now pressed in earnest, the Arabs 
working rapidly and with increasing shouts, he called upon all 
the gentlemen for assistance, giving such directions as should 
enable them to work with intelligence. 

“ Bear a hand, Saunders,” he said, having taken the stew- 
ard forward with him, as one mor# accustomed to ships than 
the others ; “ bear a hand my fine fellow, and light up this 
chain. Ten minutes just now are of more value than a year at 
another time.” 

“ ’Tis awful, Mr. Blunt,, sir — werry awful, I do. confirm,” 
returned the steward, blubbering and wiping his eyes between 
the drags at the chains. “ Such a fate to befall such cabins, 
sir ! — And the crockery of the werry best quality out of London 
or New York ! Had I diwined such an issue for the Montauk, 
sir, I never would have counselled Captain Truck to lay in half 
the stores we did, and most essentially not the new lots of 
vines. Oh ! sir, it is truly awful to have such a calamity wisit 
so much elegant preparation ! ” 

“ Forget it all, my fine fellow, and light up the chain. Ha ! 
— she tfluches abaft ! Ten or fifteen fathoms more will an- 
swer.” 

“ I’ve paid great dewotion to the silver, Mr. Blunt, sir, for 
it’s all in the launch, even to the broken mustard-spoon ; and I 
do hope, if Captain Truck’s soul is permitted to superintend 
the pantry any longer, it will be quite beatified and encouraged 
with my prudence and oversight. I left all the rest of the 
table furniture, sir ; though I suppose these muscle - men will not 
have much use for any but the oyster-knives, as I am informed 
they eat with their fingers. I declare it is quite oppressive 
and unhuman to have such wagabonds rummaging one’s 
lockers ! ” 


28 o 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


“ Rouse away, my man, and light up ! the ship has caught 
the breeze on her larboard bow, and begins to take the chain 
more freely. Remember that precious beings depend on us 
for safety ! ” 

“ Ay, ay, sir ; light up, it is. I feel quite a concern for the 
ladies, sir, and more especially for the stores we abandon to 
the underwriters. A better-found ship never came out of St. 
Catherine’s Docks or the East River, particularly in the pantry 
department ; and I wonder what these wretches will do with 
her. They will be quite abashed with her conveniences, sir, 
and unable to enjoy them. Poor Toast, too ! he will have a 
monstrous unpleasant time with the muscle - men ; for he never 
eats fish ; and has quite a genteel and ameliorated way with 
him. I shouldn’t wonder if he forgot all I have taken so much 
pains to teach him, sir, unless he’s dead ; in which case it will 
be of no use to him in another world.” 

“ That will do,” interrupted Paul, ceasing his labor ; “ the 
ship is aground from forward aft. We will now hurry the spars 
and sails into the boat, and Jet ladies get into her.” 

In order that ‘the reader may better understand the present 
situation of the ship, it may be necessary to explain what Mr. 
Powis and the steward had been doing all this time. By pay- 
ing out the chains, the ship had fallen farther astern, until she 
took the ground abaft on the edge of the sand-bank so often 
mentioned ; and, once fast at that end, her bows had fallen off, 
pressed by the wind, as the depth of the water would allow. 
She now- lay aground forward and aft, with her starboard side 
to the reef, and the launch between the vessel and the naked 
sands was completely covered from the observation and 
assaults of the barbarians by the former. 

Eve, Mademoiselle Viefville, and Mr. Effingham now got 
into the launch, while the others still remained in the ship to 
cjomplete the preparations. * 

“ They get on fast with their raft,” said Paul, while he 
both worked himself and directed the labor of the others, 
“ though we shall be safe here until they actually quit the 
rocks. Their spars will be certain to float down upon the ship ; 
but the movement will necessarily be slow, as the water is too 
deep to admit of setting, even if they had poles, of which I see 
none. Throw these spare sails on the roof of the launch, 
Saunders. They may be wanted before, we reach a port, 
.should God protect long enough to effect so much. Pass 
two compasses also into the boat, with all the carpenter’s tools 
that have been collected.” 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


28 


‘ While giving these orders, Paul was busied in sawing off 
the larger end of the pole-mizzen-top-gallant-mast, to convert 
it into a spar for the launch. This was done by the time he 
ceased speaking ; a step was made, and, jumping down on the 
roof of the boat, he cut out a hole to receive it, at a spot he 
had previously marked for that purpose. By the time he had 
done, the spar was ready to be entered, and in another minute 
they had the satisfaction of seeing a very sufficient mast in its 
place. A royal was also stretched to its yard, and halyards,, 
tack and sheet, being bent, everything was ready to run up a 
sail at a moment’s warning. As this suppled the means of 
motion, the gentlemen began to breathe more freely, and to 
bethink them of those minor comforts and essentials that in 
the hurry of such a scene would be likely to be overlooked. 
After a few more busy minutes, all was pronounced to be 
ready, and John Effingham began seriously to urge the party 
to quit the ship ; but Paul still hesitated. He strained his eyes 
in the direction of the. wreck, in the vain hope of yet receiving 
succor from that quarter ; but, of course, uselessly, as it was 
about the time when Captain Truck was warping off with his 
raft, in order to obtain an offiing. Just at this moment a party 
of twenty Arabs got upon the spars, which they had brought 
together into a single body, and began to drift down slowly, 
upon the ship. 

Paul cast a look about him to see if anything else that was 
useful could be found, and his eyes fell upon the gun. It 
struck him that it might be made serviceable as a scarecrow 
in forcing their way through the inlet, and he determined to 
lodge it on the roof of the launch, for the present, at least, 
and to throw it overboard as soon as they got into rough water, 
if indeed they should be so fortunate as to get outside of the 
reef at all. The stay and yard tackles offered the necessary 
facilities, and he instantly slung the piece. A few rounds of the 
capstan lifted it from the deck, a few more bore it clear of the 
side and then it was easily lowered on the roof, Saunders be- 
ing sent into the boat to set up a stanchion beneath, in order 
that its weight might do no injury. 

The gentlemen at last got into the launch, with the excep- 
tion of Paul, who still lingered in the ship watching the progress 
of the Arabs, and making his calcuations for the future. 

It required great steadiness of nerve, perfect self-reliance, 
and an entire confidence in his resources and knowledge, for 
one to remain a passive spectator of the slow drift of the raft,, 
while it gradually settled down on the ship. As it approached, 


282 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


Paul was seen by those on it, and, with the usual duplicity* of 
barbarians, they made signs of amity and encouragement. * 
These signs did not deceive the young man, however, who 3 
only remained to be a close observer of their conduct, thinking 1 
some useful hint might thus be obtained, though his calmness ^ 
so far imposed on the Arabs that they even made signs to him 
to throw them a rope. Believing it now time to depart, he an- ' 
swered the signal favorably, and disappeared from their sight. | 
Even in descending to the boat, this trained and cool young 
seaman betrayed no haste. His movements were quick, and 
everything was done with readiness and knowledge certainly, J 
but no confusion or trepidation occasioned the loss of a mo- j 
ment. He hoisted the sail, brought down the tack, and then § 
descended beneath the roof, having first hauled in the painter, | 
and given the boat a long and vigorous shove, to force it from 
the side of the vessel. By this last expedient he at once placed I 
thirty feet of water between the boat and the Montauk, a space 
that the Arabs had no means of overcoming. As soon as he was * 
beneath the roof the sheet was hauled in, and Paul seized the^ 
tiller; which had been made, by means of a narrow cut in the 
boards, to play in one of the shutters. Mr. Sharp took a posi- • 
tion in the bows, where he could see the sands and channels 
through the crevices, directing the other how to steer; and just 
as a shout announced the arrival of the raft at the other side 
of the ship, the flap of their sail gave those in the boat the 
welcome intelligence that they had got so far from her cover as 
to feel the force of the wind. 


CHAPTER XXIV. 


Speed, gallant bark ! richer cargo is thine, 

Than Brazilian gem, or Peruvian mine ; 

And the treasures thou bearest th^ destiny wait. 

For they, if thou perish, must share in thy fate. 

Park. 

The departure of the boat was excellently timed. Had it 
left the side of the ship while the Arabs on the raft were un- 
occupied, and at a little distance, it would have been exposed 
to their fire ; for at least a dozen of those who boarded had mus- 
kets ; whereas the boat now glided away to leeward, while 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


283 

they were busy in getting up her side, or were so near the ship 
as not to be able to see the launch at all. When Paul Powis, 
who was looking astern through a crevice, saw the first Arab on 
the deck of the Montauk, the launch was already near a cable’s 
length from her, running with a fresh and free wind into one of 
the numerous little channels that intersected the naked banks 
of sand. The unusual construction of the boat, with its enclosed 
roof, and the circumstance that no one was visible on board her, 
had the effect to keep the barbarians passive, until distance put 
her beyond the reach of danger. A few muskets were dis- 
charged, but they were fired at random, and in the bravado of 
a semi-savage state of feeling. 

Paul kept the launch running off free, until he was near a 
mile from the ship, when, finding he was approaching the reef 
to the northward and eastward, and that a favorable sandbank 
lay a short distance ahead, he put down the helm, let the sheet 
fly, and the boat’s forefoot shot upon the sands. By a little 
management, the launch was got broadside to the bank, the 
water being sufficiently deep, and, when it yiras secured, the fe- 
males were enabled to land through the opening of a shutter. 

The change from the apparent hoplessness of their situation, 
was so great, as to render the whole party comparatively happy. 
Paul and John Effingham united in affirming it would be quite 
possible to reach one of the islands to leeward in so good a 
boat, and that they ought to deem themselves fortunate, under 
the circumstances, in being the masters of a little bark so well 
found in every essential. 'Eve and Mademoiselle Viefville, who 
had fervently returned their thanks to the Great Ruler of events, 
while in the boat, walked about the hard sand with even a sense 
of enjoyment, and smiles began again to brighten the beautiful 
features of the first. Mr. Effingham declared, with a grateful 
heart, that in no park, or garden, had he ever before met with 
a promenade that seemed so delightful as this spot of naked 
'and moistened sand, on the sterile coast of the Great Desert. 
Its charm was its security, for its distance from every point that 
could be approached by the Arabs, rendered it, in their eyes, a 
paradise. 

Paul Powis, however, though he maintained a cheerful air, 
and the knowledge that he had been so instrumental in saving 
the party lightened his heart of a load, and disposed him even 
to gayety, was not without some lingering remains of uneasi- 
ness. He remembered the boats of the Dane, and, as he 
thought it more than probable Captain Truck had fallen into 
the hands of the barbarians, he feared that the latter might 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


284 

yet find the means to lay hands on themselves. While he was 
at work fitting the rigging, and preparing a jigger, with a view 
to render the launch more manageable, he cast frequent un- 
easy glances to the northward, with a feverish apprehension that 
one of the so-long-wished-for boats might at length appear. 
Their friends he no longer expected, but his fears were all 
directed towards the premature arrival of enemies from that 
quarter. None appeared, however, and Saunders actually 
lighted a fire on the bank,, and prepared the grateful refresh- 
ment of tea for the whole party ; none of which had tasted food 
since morning, though it was now drawing near night. 

“ Our caterers,” said Paul, smiling, as he cast his eyes over 
the repast which Ann Sidley had spread on the roof of the 
boat, where they were all seated on stools, boxes, and trunks, 
“ our caterers have been of the gentle sex, as any one may 
see, for we have delicacies that are fitter for a banquet than a 
desert.” 

“ I thought Miss Eve would relish them, sir,” Nanny meek- 
ly excused herself by saying ; “ she is not much accustomed to 
a coarse diet ; and mamerzelle, too, likes niceties, as I believe 
is the case with all of French extraction.” 

Eve’s eyes glistened, though she felt it necessary to say 
something bv way of apology. 

“ Poor Ann has been so long accustomed to humor the 
caprices of a petted girl,” she said, “ that I fear those who will 
have occasion for all their strength may the sufferers. I should 
regret it for ever, Mr. Powis, if you, who are every way of so 
much importance to us, should not find the food you required.” 

“I have very inadvertently and unwittingly drawn down 
upon myself the suspicion of being one of Mr. Monday’s gour- 
mets , a plain roast and boiled person,” the young man answered 
laughingly, “ when it was merely my desire to express the 
pleasure I had in perceiving that those whose comfort and ease 
are of more account than anything else, have been so well* 
cared for. I could almost starve with satisfaction, Miss Effing- 
ham, if I saw you free from suffering under the extraordinary 
circumstances in which we are placed.” 

Eve looked grateful, and the emotion excited by this speech 
restored all that beauty which had so lately been chilled by 
fear. 

“ Did I not hear a dialogue between you and Mr. Saunders 
touching the merits of sundry stores that had been left in the 
ship ? ” asked John Effingham, turning to Paul by way of re- 
lieving his cousin’s distress. 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


285 

“ Indeed you might ; he relieved the time we were rousing 
at the chains with a beautiful Jeremiad on the calamities of the 
lockers. I fancy, steward, that you consider the misfortunes 
of the pantry as the heaviest disaster that has befallen the 
Montauk ! ” 

Saunders seldom smiled. In this particular he resembled 
Captain Truck ; the one subduing all light emotions from an 
inveterate habit of serious comicality, and the responsibility of 
command ; and the other having lost most of his disposition to 
merriment, as the cart-horse loses his propensity to kick, from 
being overworked. The steward, moreover, had taken up .the 
conceit that it was indicative of a “ nigger ” to be merry ; and, 
between dignity, a proper regard to his color — which was about 
half-way between that of a Gold Coast importation, and a rice- 
plantation overseer, down with the fever in his third season — 
and dogged submission to unmitigated calls on his time, the 
prevailing character of the poor fellow’s physiognomy was that 
of a dolorous sentimentality. He believed himself to be 
materially refined by having had so much intimate communica- 
tion with gentlemen and ladies suffering under sea-sickness, 
and he knew that no man in the ship could use language like 
that he had always at his finger’s ends, While so strongly 
addicted to melancholy, therefore, he was fond of hearing him- 
self talk ; and, palpably encouraged as he had now been by 
John Effingham and Paul, and a little emboldened by the fami- 
liarity of a shipwreck, he did not hesitate about mingling in the 
discourse, through holding the Effinghams habitually in awe. 

“ I esteem it a great privilege, ladies and gentlemen,” he 
observed as soon as I^aul ceased, “ to have the honor of being 
wracked (for so the steward, in conformity with the Doric of the 
forecastle, pronounced the word), in such company. I should 
deem it a disgrace to be cast away in some society I could name, 
although I will predicate, as we say in America, nothing on 
their absence. As to what inwolves the stores, it suggested 
itself to me that the ladies would like delicate diet, and I in- 
termated as much to Mrs. Sidley and t’other French waiting- 
woman. Do you imagine, gentlemen, that the souls of the dead 
are permitted to lookback at suchewentsof this life as touches 
their own private concerns and feelings ? ” 

. “ That would depend, I should think, steward, on the nature 
of the employment of the souls themselves,” returned John 
Effingham. “ There must be certain souls to which any occu- 
pation would be more agreeable than that of looking behind 
them. But, may I ask why you inquire ? ” 


286 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


“Because, Mr. John Effingham, sir, I do not believe Cap- 
tain Truck can ever be happy in heaven, as long as the ship is 
in the hands of the Arabs ! If she had been honorably and 
fairly wracked, and the captain suffercated by drowning, he 
could go to sleep like another Christian ; but, I do think, sir, 
if there be any special perdition for seamen, it must be to see 
their vessel rummaged by Arabs. I’ll warrant, now, those 
blackguards have had their fingers in everything already ; 
sugar, chocolate, raisins, coffee, cakes, and all ! I wonder who 
they think would like to use articles they have handled ! And 
there is poor Toast, gentlemen, an aspiring and improving 
young man ; one Who had the materials of a good steward in 
him, though I can hardly say they were completely deweloped. 
I did look forward to the day when I could consign him to 
Mr. Leach as my own predecessor, when Captain Truck and I 
should retire, as I have no doubt we should have done on the 
same day, but for this distressing accident. I dewoutly pray 
that Toast is deceased, for I would rather any misfortune should 
befall him in the other world than that he should be compelled 
to associate with Arab niggers in this. Dead or alive, ladies, 
I am an advocate for a man’s keeping himself respectable, and 
in proper company.” 

So elastic had the spirits of the whole become by their un- 
looked-for escape, that Saunders was indulged to the top of his 
humor, and while he served the meal, passing between his fire 
on the sands and the roof of the launch, he enjoyed a heartier 
gossip than any he had had since they left the dock ; not even 
excepting those sniggering scenes with Mr. Toast in the pantry, 
in which he used to unbend himself a little, forgetting his dignity 
as steward in the native propensities of the black. 

Paul Powis entered but a moment into the trifling, for on 
him rested the safety of all. He alone could navigate, or even 
manage the boat in rough water ; and, while the others confided 
so implicitly in his steadiness and skill, he felt the usual burthen 
of responsibility. When the supper was ended, and the party 
were walking up and down the little islet of sand, he took his 
station on the roof therefore, and examined the proceedings of 
the Arabs with the glass ; Mr. Sharp, with a species of chival- 
rous self-denial that was not lost on his companion, foregoing 
the happiness of walking at the side of Eve, to remain near 
him. 

“The wretches have laid waste the cabins already !” ob- 
served Mr. Sharp, when Paul had been looking at the ship some 


HOME WARD B 0 UA T D. 


287 

little time. “ That which it took months to produce they will 
destroy in an hour.” 

“ I do not see that,” returned Paul ; “ there are but about 
fifty in the ship, and their efforts seem to be directed to hauling 
her over against the rocks. They have no means of landing 
their plunder where she lies'; and I suspect there is a sort of 
convention that all are to start fair. One or two, who appear to 
be chiefs, go in and out of the cabins ; but the rest are actively 
engaged in endeavoring to move the ship.” 

And with what success ? ” 

“ None, apparently. It exceeds their knowledge of me- 
chanics to force so heavy a mass from its position. The wind 
has driven the ship firmly on the bank, and nothing short of the 
windlass, or capstan, can remove her. These ignorant crea- 
tures have got two or three small ropes between the vessel and 
the reef, and are pulling fruitlessly at both ends ! But our chief 
concern will be to find an outlet into the ocean, when we will 
make the best of our way towards the Cape de Verds.” 

Paul now commenced a long and close examination of the 
reef, to ascertain by what openings he might get the launch on 
the outside. To the northward of the great inlet there was a 
continued line of rocks, on which he was sorry to perceive 
armed Arabs beginning to show themselves ; a sign that the 
barbarians still entertained the hope of capturing the party. 
Southward of the inlet there were many places in which a boat 
might pass at half-tide, and he trusted to getting through one 
of them as soon as it became dark. As the escape in the boat 
could not have been foreseen, the Arabs had not yet brought 
down upon them the boats of the wreck ; but should morning 
dawn and find them still within the reef, he saw no hope of final 
escape against boats that would possess the advantage of oars, 
ignorant as the barbarians might be ol their proper use. 

Everything was now ready. The interior of the launch was 
divided "into two apartments by counterpanes, trunks, and 
boxes ; the females spreading their mattresses in the forward 
room, and the males in the other. Some of those profound in- 
terpreters of the law, who illustrate legislation by the devices 
of trade, had shipped in the Montfiuk several hundred rude 
leaden busts of Napoleon, with a view to save the distinction 
in duties between the metal manufactured and the metal un- 
manufactured. Four or five of these busts had been struck into 
the launch as a ballast. They were now snugly stowed, together 
with the water, and all the heavier articles, in the bottom of the 
boat. The jigger had been made and bent, and a suitable 


288 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


mast was stepped by means of the roof. In short, every provi- 
sion for comfort or safety that Paul could think of had been at- 
tended to ; and everything was in readiness to re-embark as 
soon as the proper hour should arrive. 

The gentler portion of the party were seated on the edge of 
the roof, watching the setting sun, and engaged in a discourse 
with feelings more attempered to their actual condition than 
had been the case immediately after their escape. The even- 
ing had a little of that wild and watery aspect which, about the 
same hour, had given Captain Truck so much concern, but the 
sun dipped gorgeously into the liquid world of the West, and the 
whole scene, including the endless desert, the black reef, the 
stranded ship, and the movements of the bustling Arabs, was 
one of gloomy grandeur. 

“Could we foretell the events of a month,’’ said John Ef- 
fingham, “ with what different feelings from the present would 
life be chequered ! When we left London, the twenty days 
since, our eyes and minds were filled with the movements, cares, 
refinements, and interest of a great and polished capital, and 
here we sit, houseless wanderers, gazing at an eventide on the 
coast of Africa ! In this way, young men, and young ladies too, 
will you find, as life glides away, that the future will disappoint 
the expectations of the present moment ! ” 

“ All futures are not gloomy, cousin Jack,” said Eve ; “ nor 
is all hope doomed to meet with disappointment. A merciful 
God cares for us when we are reduced to despair on our own 
account, and throws a ray of unexpected light on our darkest 
hours. Certainly we, of all his creatures, ought not to deny 
this ! ” 

“I do not deny it. We have been rescued in a manner so 
simple as to seem unavoidable, and yet so unexpected as to be 
almost miraculous. Had not Mr. Blunt, or Mr. Powis, as you 
call him — although I am not in the secret of the masquerade — 
but, had not this gentleman been a seaman, it would have sur- 
passed all our means to get this boat into the water, or even to 
use her properly were she even launched. I look upon his pro- 
fession as being the first great providential interference, or pro- 
vision, in our behalf ; and his superior skill and readiness in 
that profession as a circumstance of no less importance to us.” 

Eve was silent; but the glow in the western sky was 
scarcely more radiant and bright than the look she cast on the 
subject of the remark. 

“ It is no great merit to be a seaman, for the trade is like 
another, a mere matter of practice and education,” observed 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


289 

Paul, after a moment of awkward hesitation. “ If, as you say, 
I have been instrumental in serving you, I shall never regret 
the accidents — cruel accidents of my early life I had almost 
called them — that cast my fortunes so early on the ocean.” 

A falling pin would have been heard, and all hoped the 
young man would proceed ; but he chose to be silent. Saunders 
happened . to overhear the remark, for he was aiding Ann Sidley 
in the boat, and he took up the subject where it was left by the 
other, in a little aside with his companion. 

“ It is a misfortune that Mr. Dodge is not here to question 
the gentleman,” said the steward to his assistant, “ and then we 
might hear more of his adventures, which, I make no doubt, have 
been werry pathetic and romantical. Mr. Dodge is a genuine 
inquisitor, Mistress Ann ; not such and inquisitor as burns 
people and flays them in Spain, where I have been, but such 
an inquisitor as torments people, and of whom we have lots in 
America.” 

“ Let the poor man rest in peace,” said Nanny, sighing. 
“ He’s gone to his great account, steward ; and I fear we shall 
none-of us make as good a figure as we might at the final set- 
tling. Besides Miss Eve, I never knew a mortal that wasn’t 
more or less a sinner.” 

“ So they all say ; and I must allow that my experience 
leans to the wicked side of the question. Captain Truck, now, 
was a worthy man ; but he had his faults, as well as Toast. In 
the first place he would swear when things took him back ; and 
then, he had no prewarication about speaking his mind of a 
fellow-creature, if the coffee happened to be thick, or the 
poultry didn’t take fat kindly. I’ve known him box the com- 
pass with oaths if the ship was got in irons.” 

“ It’s very sinful : and it is to be feared that the poor man 
was made to think of all this in his latter moments.” 

“ If the Arabs undertook to cannibalize him, I think he must 
have given it to them right and left,” continued Saunders, wip- 
ing an eye, for between him and the captain there had existed 
some such affection as the prisoner comes to feel for the hand- 
cuffs with which he amuses his ennui; “ some of his oaths 
would choke a dog.” 

“ Well, let him rest — let him rest. Providence is kind ; and 
the poor man may have repented in season.” 

“ And Toast, too 1 I’m sure, Mrs. Ann, I forgive Toast all 
the little mistakes he made, from the bottom of my heart ; and 
particularly that affair of the beefsteak that he let fall into the 
coffee the morning that Captain Tiuck took me so flat aback 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


290 

about it ; and I pray most dewoutly that the captain, now he has 
dropped this mortal coil, and that there is nothing left of him 
but soul, may not find it out, lest it should breed ill-blood be- 
tween them in heaven.” 

“ Steward, you scarcely know what you say,” interrupted 
Ann, shocked at his ignorance, “ and I will speak of it no 
more.” 

Mr. Saunders was compelled to acquiesce, and he amused 
himself by listening to what was said by those on the roof. As 
Paul did not choose to explain farther, however, the conversa- 
tion was resumed as if he had said nothing. They talked of 
their escape, their hopes, and of the supposed fate of the rest 
of the party; the discourse leaving a feeling of sadness on all, 
that harmonized with the melancholy, but not unpicturesque, 
scene irr which they were placed. At length the night set in ; 
and as it threatened to be dark and damp, the ladies early made 
their arrangements to retire. The gentlemen remained on the 
sands much later ; and it was ten o’clock before Paul Powis and 
Mr. Sharp, who had assumed the watch, were left alone. 

This was about an hour later than the period already de- 
scribed as the moment when Captain Truck disposed himself 
to sleep in the launch of the Dane. The weather had sensibly 
altered in the brief interval, and there were signs that, to the 
understanding of our young seaman, denoted a change. The 
darkness, was intense. So deep and pitchy black, indeed, had 
the night become, that even the land was no longer to be dis- 
tinguished, and the only clues the two gentlemen had to its 
position were the mouldering watchfires of the Arab camp, 
and the direction of the wind. 

“ We will now make an attempt,” said Paul, stopping in 
his -short walk on the sand, and examining the murky vault 
overhead. “ Midnight is near ; and by two o’clock the tide 
will be entirely up. It is a dark night to thread these narrow 
channels in, and to go out upon the ocean, too, in so frail a 
bark ! But the alternative is worse.” 

“ Would it not be better to allow the water to rise still 
higher ? I see by these sands that it has not yet done coming 
in.” 

“ There is not much tide in these low latitudes, and the little 
rise that is left may help us off a bank, should we strike one. 
If you will get upon the roof, I will bring in the grapnels and 
force the boat off.” 

Mr. Sharp complied, and in a few minutes the launch was 
floating slowly away from the hospitable bank of sand. Paul 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


291 

hauled out the jigger, a small sprit-sail, that kept itself close- 
hauled from being fastened to a stationary boom, and a little 
mast stepped quite aft, the effect of which was to press the 
boat against the wind. This brought the launch’s head up, 
and it was just possible to see, by close attention, that they 
had a slight motion through the water. 

“ I quit that bank of sand as one quits a tried friend,” said 
Paul, all the conversation now being in little more than 
whispers : “ when near it, I know where we are ; but presently 
we shall be absolutely lost in this intense darkness.” 

“ We have the fires of the Arabs for lighthouses still.” 

“ They may give us some faint notions of our positions ; 
but light like that is a very teacherous guide in so dark a night. 
We have little else to do but to keep an eye on the water, and 
to endeavor to get to windward.” 

Paul set the lug-sail, into which he had converted the royal, 
and seated himself directly in the eyes of the boat, with a leg 
hanging down on each side of the cutwater. He had rigged 
lines to the tiller, and with one in each hand he steered, as if 
managing a boat with yoke-lines. Mr. Sharp was seated at 
hand, holding the sheet of the mainsail ; a boathook and a 
light spar lying on the roof near by, in readiness to be used 
should they ground. 

While on the bank, Paul had observed that, by keeping 
the boat near the wind, he might stretch through one of the 
widest of the channels for near two miles unless disturbed by 
currents, and that, when at* its southern end, he should be far 
enough to windward to fetch the inlet, but for the banks of 
•sand that might lie in his way. The distance had prevented 
his discerning any passage through the roof at the farther end 
of this channel ; but, the boat drawing only two feet of water, 
he was not without hopes of being able to find one. A chasm, 
that was deep enough to prevent the passage of the Arabs when 
the tide was in, would, he thought, certainly suffice for their 
purpose. The progress of the boat was steady, and reasonably 
fast ; but it was like moving in a mass of obscurity. The 
gentleman watched the water ahead intently, with a view to 
avoid the banks, but with little success ; for, as they advanced, 
it was merely one pile of gloom succeeding another. Fortun- 
ately the previous observation of Paul availed them, and for 
more than half an hour their progress was uninterrupted. 

“ They sleep in security beneath us,” said Paul, “ while we 
are steering almost at random. Th,‘ > is a strange and hazard- 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


292 

ous situation in which we are placed. The obscurity renders 
all the risks double.” 

“ By the watch-fires, we must have nearly crossed the bay, 
and I should think we are quite near the southern reef.” 

“ I think the same ; but I like not this baffling of the wind. 
It comes fresher at moments, but it is in puffs, and I fear there 
will be a shift. It is now my best pilot.” 

“ That and the fires.” 

“ The fires are treacherous always. It looks darker than 
ever ahead ! ” 

The wind ceased blowing altogether, and the sail fell in 
heavily. Almost at the same moment the launch lost its way, 
and Paul. had time to thrust the boat-hook forward just in sea- 
son to prevent its striking a rock. 

“ This is a part of the reef, then, that is never covered,” said 
he. “ If you will get on the rocks and hold the boat, I will 
endeavor to examine the place for a passage. Were we one 
hundred feet to the southward and westward, we should be in 
the open ocean, and comparatively safe.” 

Mr. Sharp complied, and Paul descended carefully on the 
reef, feeling his way in the intense darkness by means of the 
boat-hook. He was absent ten minutes, moving with great 
caution, as there was the danger of his falling into the sea at 
every step, His friend began to be uneasy, and the whole of 
the jeopardy of their situation presented itself vividly to his 
mind in that brief space of time should accident befall their 
only guide. He was looking anxiously, in the direction in 
which Paul had disappeared, when he felt a gripe of his arm. 

“ Breathe even with care ! ” whispered Paul hurriedly. 
“ These rocks are covered with Arabs, who have chosen to re- 
main on the dry parts of the reef, in readiness for their plunder 
in the morning. Thank Heaven ! I have found you again ; 
for I was beginning to despair. To have called to you would 
have been certain capture, as eight or ten of the barbarians 
are sleeping within fifty feet of us. Get on the roof with the 
least possible noise, and leave the rest to me.” 

As soon as Mr. Sharp was in the boat, Paul gave it a violent 
shove from the rocks, and sprang on the roof at the same 
mement. This forced the launch astern, and procured a mo- 
mentary safety. But the wind had shifted. It now came 
baffling, and in puffs, from the Desert, a circumstance that 
brought them again to leeward. 

“ This is the commencement of the trades,” said Paul; “ they 
have been interrupted by the late gale, but are returning. 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


2 93 

Were we outside the reef, our prayers could not be more kindly 
answered than by giving us this very wind ; but here, where 
we are, it comes unseasonably. Ha ! — this at least, helps 
her ! ” 

A puff from the land filled the sails, and the ripple of the 
water at the stem was just audible. The helm was attended 
to, and the boat drew slowly from the reef and ahead. 

“ We have all reason for gratitude ! That danger, at least, 
is avoided. Hal the boat is aground ! ” 

Sure enough the launch was on the sands. They were still 
so near the rocks, as to require the utmost caution in their 
proceedings. Using the spar with great care, the gentlemen 
discovered that the boat hung astern, and there remained no 
choice but patience. 

It is fortunate the Arabs have no dogs with them on the 
rocks ; you hear them howling incessantly in their camps.” 

“ It is, truly. Think you we can ever find the inlet in this 
deep obscurity ? ” 

“ It is our only course. By following the rocks we should be 
certain to discover it : but you perceive they are already out 
of sight, though they cannot be thirty fathoms from us. The 
helm is free, and the boat must be clear of _ the bottom again. 
This last puff has helped us.” 

Another silence succeeded, during which the launch moved 
slowly onward, though whither, neither of the gentlemen could 
tell. But a single fire remained in sight, and that glimmered 
like a dying blaze. At times the wind came hot and arid, 
savoring of the Desert, and then intervals of death-like calm, 
would follow. Paul watched the boat narrowly for half an hour, 
turning every breath of air to the best account, though he was 
absolutely ignorant of his position. The reef had not been 
seen again, and three several times they grounded, the tide as 
often floating them off. The course, too, had been repeatedly 
varied. The result was that painful and profound sensation of 
helplessness that overcomes us all when the chain of associa- 
tion is broken, and reason becomes an agent less useful than 
instinct. 

“ The last fire is out,” whispered Paul. “ I fear that the 
day will dawn and find us still within the reef.” 

“ I see an object near us. Can it be a high bank ? ” 

The wind had entirely ceased, and the boat was almost 
without motion. Paul saw a darkness more intense even than 
common ahead of him, and he leaned forward, naturally raising 
a hand before him in precaution. Something he touched, he 


294 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


knew not what ; but feeling a hard smooth surface, that he at 
first mistook for a rock, he raised his eyes slowly, and discerned, 
by the little light that lingered in the vault of heaven, a dim 
tracery that he recognized. His hand was on the quarter of 
the ship ! 

“ ’Tis the Montauk ! ” he whispered breathlessly, “ and her 
decks must be covered with Arabs. Hist ! — do you hear noth- 
ing ? ” 

They listened, and smothered voices, those of the watch, 
mingled with low laughter, were quite audible. This was a 
crisis to disturb the coolness of one less trained and steady 
than Paul ; but he preserved his self-possession. 

“ There is good as well as evil in this,” he whispered, “ I now 
know our precise position ; and, God be praised ! the inlet is 
near, could we but reach it. — By a strong shove we can always 
force the launch from the vessel’s side, and prevent their board- 
ing us ; and I think, with extreme caution, we may even haul 
the boat past the ship undetected.” 

This delicate task was undertaken. It was necessary to 
avoid even a tread heavier than common, a fall of the boat-hook, 
or a collision with the vessel, as the slightest noise became dis- 
tinctly audible in the profound stillness of deep night. Once 
enlightened as to his real position, however, Paul saw with his 
mind’s eye 'obstructions that another might not have avoided. 
He knew exactly where to lay his hand, when to bear off, and 
when to approach nearer to the side of the ship, as he warily 
drew the boat along the massive hull. — The yard of the launch 
luckily leaned towards the reef, and offered no impediment. 
In this manner, then, the two gentlemen hauled their boat as 
far as the bows of the ship, and Paul was on the point of giving 
a last push, with a view to shove it to as great a distance pos- 
sible ahead of the packet, when its movement was suddenly 
and violently arrested. 


HO ME IV A ED B 0 UA r D, 


2 9S 


CHAPTER JCXV. 

And when the hours of rest 
Come, like a calm upon the mid-sea brine 

Hushing its billowy breast — 

The quiet of that moment too, is thine; 

It breathes of him who keeps 
The vast and helpless city while it sleeps. 

Bryant. 

It was chilling to meet with this unexpected and sudden 
check at so critical a moment. The first impression was, that 
some one of the hundreds of Arabs, who were known to be 
near, had laid a hand on the launch; but this fear vanished on 
examination. No one was visible, and the side of the boat was 
untouched. The boat-hook could find no impediment in the 
water, and it was not possible that they could again be aground. 
Raising the boat hook over his head, Paul soon detected the 
obstacle. The line used by the barbarians in their efforts to 
move the ship was stretched from the forecastle to the reef, 
and it lay against the boat’s mast. It was severed with caution ; 
but the short end slipped from the hand of Mr. Sharp, who cut 
the rope, and fell into the water. The noise was heard, and 
the watch on the deck of the ship made a rush toward her 
side. 

No time was to be lost ; but Paul, who still held the outer 
end of the line, pulled on it * vigorously, hauling the boat 
swiftly from the ship, and at the same time, a little in advance. 
As soon as this was done, he dropped the line and seized the 
tiller-ropes, in order to keep the launch’s head in a direction 
between the two dangers — the ship and the reef. This was 
not clone without some little noise ; the footfall on the roof, and 
the plash of the water when it received the line, were audible ; 
and even the element washing under the bows of the boat was 
heard. The Arabs of the ship called to those on the reef, and 
the latter answered. They took the alarm, and awoke their 
comrades, for, knowing as they did, that the party of Captain 
Truck was still at liberty, they apprehended an attack. 

The clamor and uproar that succeeded were terrific. Mus- 
kets were discharged at random, and the noises from the camp 
echoed the cries and tumult from the vessel and the rocks. 
Those who had been sleeping in the boat were rudely awaked, 


HOME WARD BOUND . 


296 

and Saunders joined in the cries through sheer fright. But the 
two gentlemen on deck soon caused their companions to under- 
stand their situation, and to observe a profound silence. 

“They do not appear to see us,” whispered Paul and Eve, 
as he bent over, so as to put his head at an open window ; 
“ and a return of the breeze may still save us. There is a 
great alarm among them and no doubt they know we are not 
distant ; but so long as they cannot tell precisely where, we 
are comparatively safe. Their cries do us good service as land- 
marks, and you may be certain I shall not approach the spots 
where they are heard. Pray Heaven for a wind, dearest Miss 
Effingham, pray Heaven for a wind ! ” 

Eve silently, but fervently did pray, while the young man 
gave all his attention again to the boat. As soon as they were 
clear of the lee of the ship, the baffling puffs returned, and 
there were several minutes of a steady little breeze, during 
which the boat sensibly moved away from the noises of the 
ship. On the reef, however, the clamor still continued, and 
the gentlemen were soon satisfied that the Arabs had stationed 
themselves along the whole line of rocks, wherever the latter 
were bare at high water, as was now nearly the case, to the 
northward as well as to the southward of the opening. 

“ The tide is still entering by the inlet,” said Paul, “and 
we have its current to contend with. It is not strong, but a 
trifle is important at a moment like this ! ” 

“ Would it not be possible to reach the bank inside of us, 
and to shove the boat ahead by means of these light spars ? ” 
asked Mr. Sharp. 

The suggestion was a good one ; but Paul was afraid the 
noise in the water might reach the Arabs, and expose the party 
to their fire, as the utmost distance between the reef and the 
inner bank at that particular spot did not exceed a hundred 
fathoms. At length another puff of air from the land pressed 
upon their sails, and the water once more rippled beneath the 
bows of the boat. Paul’s heart beat hard, and as he managed 
the tiller-lines, he strained his eyes uselessly in order to pene- 
trate the massive-looking darkness. 

“ Surely,” he said to Mr. Sharp, who stood constantly at 
his elbow, “ these cries are directly ahead of us ! We are steer- 
ing for the Arabs ! ” 

“We have got wrong in the dark then. Lose not a moment 
to keep the boat away, for here to leeward there are noises.” 

As all this was self-evident, though confused in his reckon- 
ing, Paul put up the helm, and the boat fell off nearly dead be- 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


297 

fore the wind. Her motion being now comparatively rapid, a 
few minutes produced an obvious change in the direction of 
the different groups of clamorous Arabs, though they also 
brought a material lessening in the force of the air. 

“ I have it ! ” said Paul, grasping his companion almost 
convulsively by the arm. “We are at the inlet, and heading, I 
trust, directly through it ! You hear the cries on our right ; 
they come from the end of the northern reef, while these on 
our left are from the end of the southern. The sounds from 
the ship, the direction of the land breeze, our distance — all 
confirm it, and Providence again befriends us ! ”* 

“ It will be a fearful error should we be mistaken ! ” 

“ We cannot be deceived, since nothing else will explain 
the circumstances. There ! — the boat feels the ground-swell — • 
a blessed and certain sign that we are at the inlet ! Would 
that this tide were done, or that we had more wind ! ” 

Fifteen feverish minutes succeeded. At moments the puffs 
of night-air would force the boat ahead, and then again it was 
evident by the cries that she fell astern under the influence of 
an adverse current. Neither was it easy to keep her on the 
true course, for the slightest variation from the direct line in a 
tide’s way causes a vessel to sheer. To remedy the latter dan- 
ger, Paul was obliged to watch his helm closely, having no 
other guide than the noisy 'and continued vociferations of the 
Arabs. 

“ These liftings of the boat are full of hope,” resumed Paul ; 
“ I think, too, that they increase.” 

“ I perceive but little difference, though I would gladly see 
all you wish.” 

“ I am certain the swell increases, and that the boat rises 
and falls more frequently. You will allow there is a swell ? ” 

“ Quite obviously : I perceived it before we kept the boat 
away. This variable air is cruelly tantalizing ! ” 

“ Sir George Templemore — Mr. Powis,” said a soft voice 
at a window beneath them. 

“ Miss Effingham ! ” said Paul, so eager that he suffered the 
tiller-line to escape him. 

“ These are frightful cries ! — Shall we never be rid of 
them ! ” 

“ If it depended on me — on either of us — they should distress 
you no more. The boat is slowly entering the inlet, but has to 
struggle with a head-tide. The wind baffles, and is light, or 
in ten minutes we should be out of danger.” 

“ Out of this danger, but only to encounter another ! ” 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


298 

“ Nay, I do not think much of the risk of the ocean in so 
stout a boat. At the most, we may be compelled to cut away 
the roof, which makes our little bark somewhat clumsy in ap- 
pearance, though it adds infinitely to its comfort. I think we 
shall soon get the trades, before which our launch, with its 
house even, will be able to make good weather.” 

“ We are certainly nearer those cries than before ! ” 

Paul felt his cheek glow, and his hand hurriedly sought the 
tiller-line, for the boat had sensibly sheered towards the north- 
ern reef. A puff of air helped to repair his oversight, and 
all in the launch soon perceived that the cries were gradually 
but distinctly drawing more aft. 

“ The current lessens,” said Paul, “ and it is full time ; for 
it must be near high water. We shall soon feel it in our favor, 
when all will be safe ! ” 

“ This is indeed blessed tidings ! and no gratitude can ever 
repay the debt we owe you, Mr. Powis ! ” 

The puffs of air now required all the attention of Paul, 
for they again became variable, and at last the wind drew di- 
rectly ahead in a continued current for half an hour. As soon 
as this change was felt, the sails were trimmed to it, and the 
boat began to stir the water under her bows. 

“ The shift was so sudden, that we cannot be mistaken in 
its direction,” Paul remarked ; “ besides, those cries still serve 
as pilots. Never was uproar more agreeable.” 

“ I feel the bottom with this spar ! ” said Mr. Sharp sud- 
denly. 

“ Merciful Providence protect and shield the weak and 
lovely ” 

“Nay, I feel it no longer: we are already in deeper water.” 

“ It was the rock on which the seamen stood when we en- 
tered ! ” Paul exclaimed, breathing more freely. “ I like those 
voices settling more under our lee, too. We will keep this 
tack ” (the boat’s head was. to the northward) “ until we hit 
the reef, unless warned off again by the cries.” 

The boat now moved at the rate of five miles in the hour, 
or faster than a man walks,, even when in quick motion. Its 
rising and falling denoted the long heavy swell of the ocean, 
and the wash of water began to be more and more audible, as 
she settled into the sluggish swells. 

“That sounds like the surf on the reef,” continued Paul, 
“ everything denotes the outside of the rocks.” 

. “ God send it prove so ! ” 


HOME WARD BOUND. 


299 


“ That is clearly a sea breaking on a rock ! It is awkwardly 
near and to leeward, and yet it is sweet to the ear as music.” 

The boat stood steadily on, making narrow escapes from jut- 
ting rocks, as was evinced by the sounds, and once or twice by 
the sight even ; but the cries shifted gradually, and were soon 
quite astern. Paul knew that the reef trended east soon 
after passing the infet, and he felt the hope that they were fast 
leaving its western extremity, or the part that ran the farthest 
into the ocean ; after effecting which, there would be more 
water to leeward, his own course being nearly north, as he 
supposed. 

The cries drew still farther aft, and more distant, and the sul- 
len wash of the surf was no longer so near as to seem fresh 
and tangible. 


“ Hand me the lead and line, that lie at the foot of the mast, 
if you please,” said Paul. “ Our water seems sensibly to 
deepen, and the seas have become more regular.” 

He hove a cast, and found six fathoms of water ; a proof 
he thought, that they were quite clear of the reef. 

^ “ Now, dear Mr. Effingham, Miss Effingham, Mademoiselle,” 

he cried cheerfully, “ now I believe we may indeed deem our- 
selves beyond the reach of the Arabs, unless a gale force us 
again on their inhospitable shores.” 

“ Is it permitted to speak ? ” asked Mr. Effingham, who 
had maintained a steady but almost breathless silence. 

“ Freely : we are quite beyond the reach of the voice ; 
and this wind, though blowing from a quarter I do not like, is 
carrying us away from the wretches rapidly.” 

It was not safe in the darkness, and under the occasional 
heaves of the boat, for the others to come on the roof ; but 
they opened the shutters, and looked out upon the gloomy 
water with a sense of security they could not have deemed pos- 
sible for their situation. The worst was over for the moment, 
and there is a relief in present escape that temporarily conceals 
future danger. They could converse without the fear of alarming 
their enemies, and Paul spoke encouragingly of their prospects. 
It was his intention to stand to the northward until he reached 
the wreck, when, failing to get any tidings of their friends, they 
might make the best of their way to the nearest island to lee- 


ward. 

With this cheering news the party below again disposed 
themselves to sleep, while the two young men maintained their 
posts on the roof. 

“We must resemble an ark,” said Paul laughing, as he 


3 °° 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


seated hipself on a box near the stem of the boat, “ and I 
should think would frighten the Arabs from an attack, had they 
even the opportunity to make one. This house we carry will 
prove a troublesome companion, should we encounter a heavy 
and a head sea.” 

“ You say it may easily be gotten rid of.” 

“Nothing would’ be easier, the whole apparatus being made 
to ship and unship. Before the wind we might carry it a long 
time, and it would even help us along ; but on a wind it makes 
us a little top-heavy, besides giving us a leeward set. In the 
event of rain, or of bad weather of any sort, it would be a treas- 
ure to us all, more especially to the females, and I think we 
had better keep it as long as possible.” 

The half hour of breeze already mentioned sufficed to carry 
the boat some distance to the northward, when it failed, and 
the puffs from the land returned. Paul supposed they were 
quite two miles from the inlet, and, trying the lead, he found 
ten fathoms of water, a proof that they had also gradually 
receded from the shore. Still nothing but a dense darkness 
surrounded them, though there could no longer be the smallest 
doubt of their being in the open ocean. 

For near an hour the light baffling air came in puffs, as 
before, during which time the launch’s head was kept, as near as 
the two gentlemen could judge, to the northward, making but 
little progress ; and then the breeze drew gradually round into 
one quarter, and commenced blowing with a steadiness that 
they had not experienced before that night. Paul suspected 
this change, though he had no certain means of knowing it ; 
for as soon as the wind baffled, his course had got to be conject- 
ural again. As the breeze freshened, the speed of the boat neces- 
sarily augmented, though she was kept always on the wind ; and 
after half an hour’s progress, the gentlemen became once more 
uneasy as to the direction. 

“It would be a cruel and awkward fate to hit the reef 
again,” said Paul, “ and yet I cannot be sure that we are not 
running directly for it.” 

“ We have compasses : let us strike a light and look into 
the matter.” 

“ It were better had we done this more early, for a light 
might now prove dangerous, should we really have altered the 
course in this intense darkness. There is no remedy, however, 
and the risk must be taken. I will first try the lead again.” 

A cast was made, and the result was two and a half fathoms 
of water. 


HOME IV A RD B O UND. 


3°r 

“ Put the helm down ! ” cried Paul, springing to the sheet ; 
“ lose not a moment, but down with the helm ! ” 

1 he boat did not work freely under her imperfect sail and 
with the roof she carried, and a moment of painful anxiety suc- 
ceeded. Paul managed, however, to get a part of the sail aback, 
and he felt more secure. 

“ The boat has stern-way : shift the helm, Mr. Sharp.” 

This was done, the yard was dipped, and the two young 
men felt a relief almost equal to that they had experienced on 
clearing the inlet, when they found the launch again drawing 
ahead, obedient to her rudder. 

“ We are near something, reef or shore,” said Paul, stand- 
ing with the headline . in his hand, in readiness to heave. “ I 
think it can hardly be the first, as we hear no Arabs.” 

Waiting a few moments, he hove the lead, and, to his infi- 
nite joy, got three fathoms fairly. 

“ That is good news. We are hauling off the danger, what- 
ever it may be,” he said, as he felt the mark : “ and now for 
the compass.” 

Saunders was called, a light was struck, and the compasses 
were both examined. These faithful but mysterious guides, 
which have so long served man while they have baffled all his 
ingenuity to discover the sources of their power, were, as usual, 
true to their governing principle. The boat was heading north- 
northwest ; the wind was at northeast, and before they had 
tacked they had doubtless been standing directly for the beach, 
from which they could nof have been distant a half quarter of 
a mile, if so much. *A few more minutes would have carried 
them into the breakers, capsized the boat, and most probably 
drowned all below the roof, if not those on it. 

Paul shuddered as these facts forced themselves on his at- 
tention, and he determined to stand on his present course for 
two hours, when daylight would render his return towards the 
land without danger. 

“ This is the trade,” he said, “ and it will probably stand. 
We have a current to contend with, as well as a head-wind ; 
but I think we can weather the cape by morning, when we can 
get a survey of the wreck by means of the glass. If we discover 
nothing, I shall bear up at once for the Cape de Verds.” 

The two gentlemen now took the helm in turns, he who 
slept fastening himself to the mast, as a precaution against 
being rolled into the sea by the motion of the boat. In fifteen 
fathoms water they tacked again, and stood to the east-south- 
east, having made certain, by a fresh examination of the com- 


HOME WARD BOUND. 


3° 2 

pass, that the wind stood in the same quarter as before. The 
moon rose soon after, and, although the morning was clouded 
and lowering, there was then sufficient light to remove all dan- 
ger from the darkness. At length this long and anxious night 
terminated in the usual streak of day, which gleamed across the 
desert. 

Paul was at the helm, steering more by instinct than any- 
thing else, and occasionally nodding - at his post ; for two suc- 
cessive nights of watching and a day of severe toil had over- 
come his, sense of danger, and his care for others. Strange fan- 
cies beset men at such moments ; and his busy imagination 
was running over some of the scenes of his early youth, when 
either his sense or his Pandering faculties made him hear the 
usual brief, spirited hail of, 

“ Boat ahoy ! ” 

Paul opened his eyes, felt that the tiller was in his hand, 
and was about to close the first again, -when the words were 
more sternly repeated, 

“ Boat ahoy ! — what craft’s that ? Answer, or expect a 
shot ! ” 

This was plain English, and Paul was wide awake in an in- 
stant. Rubbing his eyes, he saw a line of boats anchored 
directly on his weather bow, with a raft of spars riding astern. 

“ Hurrah ! ” shouted the young man. “ This is Heaven’s 
own tidings ! Are these the Montauk’s ? ” 

“ Ay, ay. Who the devil are you ? ” 

The truth is, Captain Truck did not recognize his own launch 
in the royal, roof, and jigger. He had never before seen a boat 
afloat in such a guise ; and in the obscurity of the hour, and 
fresh awakened from a profound sleep, like Paul, his faculties 
were a little confused. But the latter soon comprehended the 
whole matter. He clapped his helm down, let fly the sheet, and 
in a minute* the launch of the packet was riding alongside of 
the launch of the Dane. Heads were out of the shutters, and 
every boot gave up its sleepers, for the cry was general through- 
out the little flotilla. 

The party just arrived alone felt joy. They found those 
whom they had believed dead, or captives, alive and free ; 
whereas the others now learned the extent of the misfortune 
that had befallen them. For a few minutes this contrast in 
feeling produced an awkward meeting; but the truth soon 
brought all down to the same sober level. Captain Truck re- 
ceived the congratulations of his friends like one in a stupor ; 
Toast looked amazed as his friend Saunders shook his hand ; 


HOME WARD BOUND. 


303 

and the gentlemen who had been to the wreck met the cheerful 
greetings of those who had just escaped the Arabs like men 
who fancied the others mad. 

We pass over the explanations that followed, as every one 
will readily understand them. Captain Truck listened to Paul 
like one in a trance, and it was some time after the young man 
had done before he spoke. With a wish to cheer him, he was 
told of the ample provision of stores that had been brought off 
in the launch, of the trade winds that had now apparently set 
in* and of the great probability of their all reaching the islands 
in safety. Still the old man made no reply ; he got on the roof 
of his own launch, and paced backwards and forwards rapidly, 
heeding nothing. Even Eve spoke to him unnoticed, and the 
consolations offered by her father were not attended to. At 
length he stopped suddenly and called for his mate. 

“Mr. Leach?” 

“ Sir.” 

“ Here is a category for you ! ” 

“ Ay, ay, sir ; it’s bad enough in its way ; still we are better 
off than the Danes.” 

“ You tell me, sir,” turning to Paul, “ that these foul black- 
guards were actually on the deck of the ship?-” 

“ Certainly, Captain Truck. They took complete posses- 
sion ; for we had no means of keeping them off.” 

“ And the ship is ashore ? ” 

“ Beyond a question.” 

“ Bilged ? ” 

“ I think not. There is no swell within the reef, and she 
lies on sand.” 

“ We might have spared ourselves the trouble, Leach, of 
culling these cursed spars, as if they had been so many tooth- 
picks.” 

“ That we might, sir ; for they will not now serve as oven- 
wood, for want of the oven.” 

“ A damnable category, Mr. Effingham ! I’m glad you are 
safe, sir ; and you, too, my dear young lady — God bless you ! 
. — God bless you ! — It were better the whole line should be in 
their power than one like you ! ” 

The old seaman’s eyes filled as he shook Eve by the hand, 
and for a moment he forgot the ship. 

“ Mr. Leach ? ” 

“ Sir.” 

“Let the people have their breakfasts, and bear a hand 
about it. We are likely to have a busy morning, sir. Lift the 


3°4 


HOME IV A RD B O UND. 


kedge, too, and let us drift down towards these gentry, and 
take a look at them. We have both wind and current with us 
now, and shall make quick work of it.” 

The kedge was raised, the sails were all set, and, with the 
two launches lashed together, the whole line of boats and spars 
began to set to the southward at a rate that would bring them 
up with the inlet in about two hours. 

“ This is the course for the Cape de Verds, gentlemen,” 
said the captain bitterly. “ We shall have to pass before our 
own door to go and ask hospitality of strangers. But let the 
people get their breakfasts, Mr. Leach ; just let the boys have 
one comfortable meal before they take to their oars.” 

Eat himself, however, Mr. Truck would not. He chewed 
the end of a cigar, and continued walking up and down the 
roof. 

In half an hour the people had ended their meal, the day 
had fairly opened, and the boats and raft had made good 
progress. 

“ Splice and main-brace, Mr. Leach,” said the captain, “for 
we are a littled jammed. And you, gentlemen, do me the 
favor to step this way for a consultation. This much is due to 
your situation.” 

Captain Truck assembled his male passengers in the stern 
of the Dane’s launch, where he commenced the following 
address : 

“Gentlemen,” he said, “everything in this world has its 
nature and its principles. This truth I hold you all to be too 
well informed and well educated to deny. The nature of a 
traveller is to travel, and see curiosities ; the nature of old men 
is to think on the past, of a young man to hope for the future. 
The nature of a seaman is to stick by his ship, and of a ship to 
be treated like a vessel, and not to be ransacked like a town 
taken by storm, or a nunnery that is rifled. You are but 
passengers, and doubtless have your own wishes and occupa- 
tions, as I have mine. Your wishes are, beyond question, to 
be safe in New York among your friends ; and mine are to get 
the Montauk there too, in as little time and with as little injury 
as possible. You have a good navigator among you ; and I 
now propose that you take the Montauk’s launch, with such 
stores as are necessary, and fill away at once for the islands, 
where, I pray God, you may all arrive in safety, and that when 
you reach America you may find all your relations in good 
health, and in no manner uneasy at this little delay. Your 
effects shall be safely delivered to your respective orders, should 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


305 

it please God to put it in the power of the line to honor your 
drafts.” 

“ You intend to attempt recapturing the ship ! ” exclaimed 
Paul. 

“ I do, sir,” returned Mr. Truck, who, having thus far 
opened his mind, for the first time that morning gave a vigor- 
ous hem ! and set about lighting a cigar. “ We may do it, 
gentlemen, or we may not do it. If we do it, you will hear 
farther from me ; if we fail, why, tell them at home that we 
carried sail as long as a stitch would draw.” 

The gentlemen looked at each other, the young waiting in 
respect for the counsel of the old, the old hesitating in defer- 
ence to the pride and feelings of the young. 

“ We must join you in this enterprise, captain,” said Mr. 
Sharp quietly, but w r ith the manner of a man of spirit and nerve. 

“ Certainly, certainly,” cried Mr. Monday ; “ we ought to 
make a common affair of it; as I daresay Sir George Tem- 
plemore will agree with me in maintaining ; the nobility and 
gentry are not often backward when their persons are to be 
risked.” 

The spurious baronet acquiesced in the proposal as readily 
as if it had been made by him whom he had temporarily deposed ; 
for, though a weak and a vain young man, he was far from 
being a dastard. 

“ This is a serious business,” observed Paul, “ and it ought 
to be ordered with method ^nd intelligence. If we have a ship 
to care for, we have those, also, who are infinitely more pre- 
cious.” 

“ Very true, Mr. Blunt, very true,” interrupted Mr. Dodge, 
a little eagerly. “ It is my maxim to let well alone ; and I am 
certain shipwrecked people can hardly be better off and more 
comfortable than we are at this very moment. I daresay 
these gallant sailors, if the question was fairly put to them, 
would give it by a handsome majority in favor of things as they 
are. I am a conservative, captain — and I think an appeal 
ought to be made to the ballot-boxes before we decide on a 
measure of so much magnitude.” 

The occasion was too grave for the ordinary pleasantry, . 
and this singular proposition was heard in silence, to Mr. 
Dodge’s great disgust. 

“I think it the duty of Captain Truck to endeavor to re- 
take his vessel,” continued Paul; “but the affair will be se- 
rious, and success is far from certain. The Montauk’s launch 
ought to be left at a safe distance with all the females, and in 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


3°6 

prudent keeping ; for any disaster to the boarding party would 
probably throw the rest of the boats into the hands of the 
barbarians, and endanger the safety of those left, in the launch. 
— Mr. Effingham and Mr. John Effingham will of course remain 
with the ladies.” 

The father assented with the simplicity of one who did not 
distrust his own motives, but the eagle-shaped features of his 
kinsman curled with a cool and sarcastic smile. 

“ Will you remain in the launch? ” the latter asked point- 
edly, turning towards Paul. 

“ Certainly it would be greatly out of character were I to 
think of it. My trade is war ; and I trust, that Captain Truck 
means to honor me with the command of one of the boats.” 

“I thought as much, by Jove!” exclaimed the captain, 
seizing a hand which he shook with the utmost cordiality ; “ I 
should as soon expect to see the sheet-anchor wink, or the best- 
bower give a mournful smile, as to see you duck ! Still, 
gentlemen, 1 am well aware of the difference in our situations. 
I ask no man to forget his duties to those on shore on my ac- 
count ; and I fancy that my regular people, aided by Mr. 
Biunt, who can really serve me by his- knowledge, will be as 
likely to do all that can be done as all of us united. It is not 
numbers that carry ships as much as spirit, promptitude, and 
resolution.” 

“ But the question has not yet been put to the people,” said 
Mr. Dodge, who was yet a little mystified by the word last 
used, which he had yet to learn was strictly technical as ap- 
plied to a vessel’s crew. 

“ It shall, sir,” returned Captain Truck, “ and I beg you to 
note the majority. My lads,” he continued, rising on a thwart, 
and speaking aloud, “ you know the history of the ship. As to 
the Arabs, now they have got her, they do not know how to 
sail her, and it is no more than a kindness to take her out of 
their hands. For this business I want volunteers ; those who 
are for the reef, and an attack, will rise up and cheer ; while 
they who like an offing have only to sit still and stay where 
they are.” 

The words were no sooner spoken than Mr. Leach jumped 
up on the gunwale and waved his hat. The people rose as one 
man, and taking the signal from the mate, they gave three as 
hearty cheers as ever rung over the bottle. 

“ Dead against you, sir ! ” observed the captain, nodding 
to the editor ; “ and I hope you are now satisfied.” 

“ The ballot might have given it the other way,” muttered 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


307 

Mr. Dodge ; “ there can be no freedom of election without the 
ballot.” 

No one, however, thought any longer of Mr. Dodge or his 
scruples ; but the whole disposition for the attack was made 
with promptitude and caution. It was decided that Mr. Effing- 
ham and his own servant should remain in the launch ; while 
the captain compelled his two mates to draw lots which of'them 
should stay behind also, a navigator being indispensable. The 
chance fell on the second mate, who submitted to his luck with 
an ill grace. 

A bust of Napoleon was cut up, and the pieces of lead 
were beaten as nearly round as possible, so as to form a dozen 
leaden balls, and a quantity of slugs, or langrage. The latter 
were put in canvas bags ; while the keg of powder was opened, 
a flannel shirt or two were torn, and cartridges were filled. 
Ammunition was also distributed to the people, and Mr. Sharp 
examined their arms. The gun was got off the roof of the 
Montauk’s launch, and placed on a grating forward in that of 
the Dane. The sails and rigging were cleared out of the boat 
and secured on the raft when she was properly manned, and 
the command of her was given to Paul. 

The three- other boats received their crews, with John 
Effingham at the head of one, the captain and his mate com- 
manding the others. Mr. Dodge felt compelled to volunteer 
to go in the launch of the Dane, where Paul had now taken 
his station, though he did it with a reluctance that escaped the 
observation of no one who took the pains to observe him. Mr. 
Sharp and Mr. Monday were with the captain, and the false 
Sir George Templemore went with Mr. Leach. These arrange- 
ments completed, the whole party waited impatiently for the 
wind and current to set them down towards the reef, the rocks 
of which by this time were plainly visible, even from the thwarts 
of the several boats. 


3°8 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


CHAPTER XXVI. 

Hark ! was it not the trumpet’s voice I heard ? 

The soul of battle is awake within me. 

The fate of ages and of empires hangs 

On this dread hour. 

Massinger. 

The two launches were still sailing side by side; and Eve 
now appeared at the open window next the seat of Paul. Her 
face was pale as when the scene of the cabin occurred, and her 
lip trembled. 

“ I do not understand these warlike proceedings,” she said ; 
“ but I trust, Mr. Blunt, we have no concern with the present 
movement.” 

“ Put your mind at ease on this head, dearest Miss Effing- 
ham, for . what we now do we do in compliance with a general 
law of manhood. Were your interests and the interests of those 
with you alone consulted, we might com'e to a very different 
decision : but I think you are in safe hands should our adven- 
ture prove unfortunate.” 

“Unfortunate! It is fearful to be so near a scene like 
this ! I cannot ask you to do anything unworthy of yourself ; 
but, all that we owe you impels me to say, I trust you have too 
much wisdom, too much true courage, to incur unnecessary 
risks.” 

The young man looked volumes of gratitude ; but the pres- 
ence of the others kept its expression within due bounds. 

“ We old sea dogs,” he answered, smiling, “ are rather 
noted for taking care of ourselves. They who are trained to a 
business like this usually set about it too much in a business- 
like manner to hazard anything for mere show.” 

“ And very wisely ; Mr. Sharp, too,” — Eve’s color deepened 
with a consciousness that Paul would have given worlds to un- 
derstand — “ he has a claim on us we shall never forget. My 
father can say all this better than I.” 

Mr. Effingham now expressed his thanks for all that had 
passed, and earnestly enjoined prudence on the young men. 
After which Eve withdrew her head, and was seen no more. 
Most of the next hour was passed in prayer by those in the 
launch. 

By this time the boats and raft were within half a mile of 


HOME WA RD B O UND. 


3°9 

the inlet ; and Captain Truck ordered the hedge, which had 
been transferred to the launch of the Montauk, to be let go. 
As soon as this was done, the old seaman threw down his hat, 
and stood on a thwart in his grey hair. 

“ Gentlemen, you have your orders,” he said with dignity ; 
for from that moment his manner rose with the occasion, and 
had something of the grandeur of the warrior. “ You see 
the enemy. The reef must first be cleared, and then the ship 
shall be carried. God knows who will live to see the end ; but 
that end must be success, or the bones of John Truck shall 
bleach on these sands ! Our cry is ‘ The Montauk and our 
own ! 5 which is a principle Vattel will sustain us in. Give way, 
men ! a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether ; each 
boat in its station ! ” 

He waved his hand, and the oars fell into the water at the 
same instant. The heavy launch was the last, for she had 
double-fasts to the other boat. While loosening that forward 
the second mate deserted his post, stepping nimbly on board 
the departing boat, and concealing himself behind the foremost 
of the two lug-sails she carried. Almost at the same instant 
Mr. Dodge reversed this manoeuvre by pretending to be left 
clinging to the boat of the Montauk, in his zeal to shove, off. 
As the sails were drawing hard, and the oars dashed the spray 
aside, it was too late to rectify either of these mistakes, had it 
been desirable. 

A few minutes of a stern calm succeeded, each boat keep- 
ing its place with beautiful precision. The Arabs had left the 
northern reef with the light ; but, the tide being out, hundreds 
were strung along the southern range of rocks, especially near 
the ship. The wind carried the launch ahead, as had been in- 
tended, and she soon drew near the inlet. 

“ Take in the sails,” said Mr. Blunt. “ See your gun clear 
forward.” 

A fine, tall, straight, athletic young seaman stood near the 
grating, with a heated iron lying in a vessel of live coals before 
him, in lieu of a loggerhead, the fire being covered with a tar- 
paulni. As Paul spoke, this young mariner turned towards him 
with the peculiar grace of a man-of-war’s man, and touched his 
hat. 

“ Ay, ay, sir. All ready, Mr. Powis.” 

Paul started, while the other smiled proudly, like one who 
knew more than his companions. 

“ We have met before,” said the first. 

“ That have we sir, and in boat-duty, too. You were the 


3 IQ 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


first on board the pirate on the coast of Cuba, and I was 
second.” 

A look of recognition and a wave of the hand passed be- 
tween them, the men cheering involuntarily. It was too late 
for more, the launch being fairly in the inlet, where she received 
a general but harmless fire from' the Arabs. An order had 
been given to fire the first shot over the heads of the barbarians ; 
but this assault changed the plan. 

“ Depress the piece, Brooks,” said Paul, “ and throw in a 
bag of slugs.” 

“ All ready, sir,” was uttered in another minute. 

“ Hold water, men — the boat is steady — let them have it.” 

Men fell a't that discharge ; but how many was never known, 
as the bodies were hurried off the reef by those who fled.- A 
few concealed themselves along the rocks, but most scampered 
towards the shore. 

“ Bravely done ! ” cried Captain Truck, as his boat swept 
past. “ Now for the ship, sir ! ” 

The people cheered again, and dashed their oars into the 
water. To clear the reef was nothing ; but to carry the ship 
was a serious affair. She was defended by four times the 
number of those in the boats, and there was no retreat. The 
Arabs, as has already been seen, had suspended their labor 
during the night, having fruitlessly endeavored to haul the 
vessel over the reef before the tide rose. More by accident 
than by calculation, they had made such arrangements by get- 
ting a line to the rocks as would probably have set the ship off 
the sands, when she floated at high water ; but this line had been 
cut by Paul in passing, and the wind coming on shore again, 
during the confusion and clamor of the barbarians, or at a 
moment when they thought they Were to be attacked, no atten- 
tion was paid to the circumstance, and the Montauk was 
suffered to drive up still higher on the sands, where she effect- 
ually grounded at the very top of the tide. As it was now 
dead low water, the ship had sewed materially, and was now 
lying on her bilge, partly sustained by the water, and partly by 
the bottom. 

During the short pause that succeeded, Saunders, who was 
seated in the captain's boat as a small-arms-man, addressed 
his subordinate in a low voice. 

“ Now, Toast,” he said, “ you are about to contend in battle 
for the first time ; and I diwine, from experience, that the ewent 
gives you some sentiments that are werry original. My advice 
to you is, to shut both eyes until the word is given to fire, 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


and then to open them suddenly, as if just awaking from sleep ; 
after which you may present and pull the trigger. Above all, 
, Toast, take care not to kill any of our own friends, most es- 
pecially not Captain Truck, just at this werry moment.” 

“ I shall do my endeavors, Mr. Saunders,” muttered Toast, 
with the apathy and submissive dependence on others with 
which the American black usually goes into action. “ If I do 
any harm, I hope, it will be overlooked, on account of my 
want of experience.” 

“ Imitate me, Toast, in coolness and propriety, and you’ll 
be certain not to offend. I do not mean that you too are to 
kill the werry same Muscle - men that I kill, but that when I kill 
one you are to kill another. And be werry careful not to hurt 
Captain Truck, who’ll be certain to run right afore the muzzles 
of our guns if he sees anything to be done there.” 

Toast growled an atssent, and then there was no other noise 
in the boat than that which was produced by the steady and 
vigorous falling of the oars. An attempt had been made to 
lighten the vessel by unloading her, and the bank of sand was 
already covered with bales and boxes, which had been brought 
up from the hold by means of a stage, and by sheer animal 
force. The raft had been extended in size, and brought 
round to the bank by the sten^of the vessel, with the intention 
to load it, and to transfer the articles already landed to the 
rocks. 

Such was the state of things about the Montauk when the 
boats came into the channel that ran directly up to the bank. 
The launch led again, her sails having been set as soon as the 
reef was swept, and she now made another discharge on the 
deck of the ship, which, inclining towards the gun, offered no 
shelter. The effect was to bring every Arab, in the twinkling 
of an eye, down upon the bank. 

“ Hurrah ! ” shouted Captain Truck ; “ that grist has puri- 
fied the old bark ! And now to see who is to own her ! ‘ The 
thieves are out of the temple,’ as my good father would have 
said.” 

The four boats were in a line abreast, the launch under one 
sail only. A good deal of confusion existed on the bank but 
the Arabs sought the cover of the bales and boxes, and opened 
a sharp though irregular fire. Three times, as they advanced, 
the second mate and that gallant-looking young seaman called 
Brooks discharged the gun, and at each discharge the Arabs 
were dislodged and driven to the raft. The cheers of the sea- 
men became animated, though they still plied the oars. 


3 12 


f HOMEWARD BOUND . 


“ Steadily, .men,” said Captain Truck, “ and prepare to 
board.” 

At this moment the launch grounded, though still twenty 
yards from the bank, the other boats passing her with loud 
cheers. 

“ We are all ready, sir,” cried Brooks. 

“ Let ’em have it. Take in the sail, boys.” 

The gun was fired, and the tall young seaman sprang upon 
the grating and cheered. As he looked backward, with a smile 
of triumph, Paul saw his eyes roll. He leaped into the air, and 
fell at his length dead upon the water ; for such is the passage 
of a man in battle, from one state of existence to another. 

“ Where do we hang ? ” asked Paul steadily ; “ forward or 
aft ! ” 

It was forward, and deeper water lay ahead of them. The 
sail was set again, and the people were ‘called aft. The boat 
tipped, and shot ahead towards the sands, like a courser re- 
leased from a sudden pull. 

All this time' the others were not idle. Not a musket was 
fired from either boat until the whole three struck the bank, 
almost at the same instant, though at as many different points. 
Then all leaped ashore, and threw in a fire so close, that the 
boxes served as much for a co^er to the assailants as to the 
assailed. It was at this critical moment, when the seamen 
paused to load, that Paul, just dear of the bottom, with his own 
hand applying the loggerhead, swept the rear of the bank with 
a most opportune discharge. 

“Yardarm and yardarm!” shouted Captain Truck, “Lay 
’em aboard, «boys, and give ’em Jack’s play ! ” 

The whole party sprang forward, and from that moment all 
order ceased. Fists, handspikes, of which many were on the 
bank, and the buts of muskets, were freely used, and in a way 
that set the spears and weapons of the Arabs at defiance. The 
Captain, Mr. Sharp, John Effingham, Mr. Monday, the soi- 
disa'nt Sir George Templemore, and the chief mate, formed a 
sort of Macedonian phalanx, which penetrated the centre of 
the barbarians, and which kept close to the enemy, following 
up its advantages with a spirit that admitted of no rallying. 
On their right and left pressed the men, an athletic, hearty, 
well-fed gang. The superiority of the Arabs was in their 
powers of endurance ; for, trained to the whipcord rigidity of 
racers, force was less their peculiar merit than bottom. Had 
they acted in concert, however, or had they been on their own 
desert, mounted, and with room for their subtle evolutions, the 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


3 T 3 

result might have been very different ■ . but unused to contend 
with an enemy who brought them within reach of the arm, 
their tactics were deranged, aud all their habits violated. Still, 
their numbers were formidable, and it is probable that the 
accident to the launch, after all, decided the matter. From 
the moment the melee began not a shot was fired, but the as- 
sailants pressed upon the assailed, until a large body of the 
latter had collected near the raft. This was just as the launch 
reached the shore, and Paul perceived there was great danger 
that the tide might roll backward from sheer necessity. The 
gun was loaded, and filled nearly to the muzzle with slugs. He 
caused the men to raise it on their oars, and to carry it to a 
large box, a little apart from the confusion of the fight. All 
this was done in a moment, for three minutes had not yet 
passed since the captain landed. 

Instead of firing, Paul called aloud to his friends to cease 
fighting. Though chafing like a vexed lion, Captain Truck 
complied, surprise effecting quite as much as obedience. The 
Arabs, hardest pressed upon, profited by the pause to fall back 
on the main body of their friends, near the raft. This was all 
Paul could ask, and he ordered the gun to be pointed at the 
centre of the group, while he advanced himself towards the 
enemy, making a sign of peace. 

“ Damn ’em, lay ’em aboard ! ” cried the captain : “ no 
quarter to the blackguards ! ” 

“ I rather think we had better charge again,” added Mr. 
Sharp, who was thoroughly warmed with his late employment. 

“ Hold, gentlemen ; you risk all needlessly. I will show 
these poor wretches what they have to expect, and they will 
probably retire. We want the ship, not their blood.” 

“ Well, well,” returned the impatient captain, “ give ’em 
plenty of Vattel, for we have ’em now in a’category.” 

The men of the wilderness and of the desert seem to act as 
much by instinct as by reason. An old sheik advanced, smil- 
ing, towards Paul, when the latter was a few yards in advance 
of his friends, offering his hand with as much cordiality as if 
they met merely to exchange courtesies. Paul led him quietly 
to the gun, put his hand in, and drew out a bag of slugs, re- 
placed it, and pointed significantly at the dense crowd of ex- 
posed Arabs, and at the heated iroji that was ready to dis- 
charge the piece. At all this the old Arab smiled, and seemed 
to express his admiration. He was then showed the strong 
and well-armed party, all of whom by this time had a musket 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


34 

or a pistol ready to use. Paul then signed to the raft and to 
the reef, as much as to tell the other to withdraw his party. 

The sheik exhibited great coolness and sagacity, and, un- 
used to frays so desperate, he signified his disposition to com- 
ply. Truces, Paul knew, were common in the African combats, 
which are seldom bloody, and he hoped the best from the 
manner of the sheik, who was now permitted to return to his 
friends. A short conference succeeded among the Arabs, 
when several of them smilingly waved their hands, and most 
of the party crowded on the raft. Others advanced, and asked 
permission to. bear away their wounded, and the bodies of the 
dead, in both of which offices they were assisted by the sea- 
men, as far as was prudent ; for it was all-important to be on 
the guard against treachery. 

In this extraordinary manner the combatants separated, 
the Arabs hauling themselves over to the reef by a line, their 
old men smiling, and making signs of amity, until they were 
fairly on the rocks. Here they remained but a very few min- 
utes, for the camels and dromedaries were seen trotting off 
towards the Dane on the shore; a sign that the compact be- 
tween the different parties of the barbarians was dissolved, and 
that each man was about to plunder on his own account. This 
movement produced great agitation among the old sheiks and 
their followers on the reef, and set them in motion with great 
activity towards the land. So great was their hurry, indeed, 
that the bodies of all the dead, and of several of the wounded, 
were fairly abandoned on the rocks, at some distance from the 
shore. 

The first step of the victors, as a matter of course, was to 
inquire into their own loss. This was much less than would 
have otherwise been, on account of their good conduct. Every 
man, without a solitary exception, had ostensibly behaved well ; 
one of the most infallible means of lessening danger. Several 
of the party had received slight hurts, and divers bullets had 
passed through hats and jackets. Mr. Sharp, alone, had two 
through the' former, besides one through his coat. Paul had 
blood drawn on an arm, and Captain Truck, to use his own 
language, resembled “ a horse in fly-time,” his skin having 
been rased in no less than five places. But all these trifling 
hurts and hairbreadth escapes counted for nothing, as no one 
was seriously injured by them, or felt sufficient inconvenience 
even to report himself wounded. 

The felicitations were warm and general ; even the seamen 
asking leave to shake their sturdy old commander by the hand. 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


3 * 5 . 

Paul and Mr. Sharp fairly embraced, each expressing his sin- 
cere pleasure that the other had escaped unharmed. . The latter 
even shook hands cordially with his counterfeit, who had acted 
with spirit from the first to the last. John Effingham alone 
maintained the same cool indifference after the affair that he 
had shown in it, when it was seen that he had played his part 
with singular coolness and discretion, dropping two Arabs with 
his fowling-piece on landing, with a sort of sportsman-like cool- 
ness with which he was in the habit of dropping woodcocks at 
home. 

“ I fear Mr. Monday is seriously hurt,” this gentleman said 
to the captain, in the midst of his congratulations : “ he sits 
aloof on the box yonder, and looks exhausted.” 

“ Mr. Monday ! I hope not, with all my heart and soul. 
He is a capital diplomate, and a stout boarder. And Mr. 
Dodge, too ! I miss Mr. Dodge.” 

“ Mr. Dodge must have remained behind to console the 
ladies,” returned Paul, “ finding that your second mate had 
abandoned them, like a recreant that he is.” 

The captain shook his disobedient mate by the hand a «► 
second time, and swore he was a mutineer for violating his 
orders, and ended by declaring that the day was not distant 
when he and Mr. Leach should command two as good liners as 
ever sailed out of America. 

“ I’ll have nothing to do with either of you as soon as we 
reach home,” he concluded. - “ There was Leach a foot or two 
ahead of me the whole time ; and as for the second officer, I 
should be- justified in logging him as having run. Well, well ; 
young men will be young men ; and so would old men too, Mr. 
John Effingham, if they knew how. But Mr. Monday does look 
doleful ; and I am afraid we shall be obliged to overhaul the 
medicine-chest for him.” 

Mr. Monday, however, was beyond the aid of medicine. A 
ball had passed through his shoulder-blade in landing; notwith- 
standing which he had pressed into the melee, where, unable to 
parry it, a spear had been thrust into his chest. The last wound 
appeared grave, and Captain Truck immediately ordered the 
sufferer to be carried into the ship; John Effingham, with a 
tenderness and humanity that were singularly in contrast to his 
ordinary sarcastic manner, volunteering to take charge of him. 

“ We have need of all our forces,” said Captain Truck, as 
Mr. Monday was borne away; “and yet it is due to our friends 
in the launch to let them know the result. Set the ensign, 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


3 l6 

Leach ; that will tell them our success, though a verbal commu- 
nication can alone acquaint them with the particulars.” 

“ If,” interupted Paul, eagerly,’ “ you will lend me the launch 
of the Dane, Mr. Sharp and myself will beat her up to the raft, 
let our friends know the result, and bring the spars down to the 
inlet. This will save the necessity of any of the men’s being 
absent. We claim the privilege, too, as belonging properly to 
the party that is now absent.” 

“ Gentlemen, take any privilege you please. You have stood 
by me like heroes ; and I owe you all more than the heel of a 
worthless old life will ever permit me to pay.” 

The two young men did not wait for a second invitation, but 
in five minutes the boat was stretching through one of the chan- 
nels that led landward ; and in five more it was laying out of the 
inlet with a steady breeze. 

The instant Captain Truck retrod the deck of his ship was 
one of uncontrollable feeling with the weatherbeaten old sea- 
man. The ship had sewed too much to admit of walking with 
ease, and he sat down on the combings of the main hatch, and 
fairly wept like an infant. So high had his feelings been 
wrought that this outbreaking was violent, and the men won- 
dered to see their grey-headed, stern, old commander, so com- 
pletely unmanned. He seemed at length ashamed of the weak- 
ness himself, for, rising like a worried tiger, he began to issue 
his orders as sternly and promptly as was his wont. 

“What the devil are you- gaping at, men!” he growled; 
“ did you never see a ship on her bilge before ? God knows, 
and for that matter you all know, there is enough to do, that you 
stand like so many marines, with their 1 eyes right ! ’ and ‘ pipe- 
clay.’ ” 

“ Take it more kindly, Captain Truck,” returned an old sea 
dog, thrusting out a hand that was all knobs, a fellow whose 
tobacco had not been displaced even by the fray ; “ take it kind- 
ly, and look upon all these boxes and bales as so much cargo 
that is to be struck in, in dock. We’ll soon stow it, and, baring 
a few slugs,' and one fourpounder, that has cut up a crate of 
crockery as if it had been a cat in a cupboard, no great harm 
is done. I look upon this matter as no more than a sudden 
squall, that has compelled us to bear up for a little while, but 
which will answer for a winch to spin yarns on all the rest of 
our days. I have fit the French, and the English, and the Turks, 
in my time ; and now I can say I have had a brush with the 
niggers.” 

“ D n me, but you’re right, old Tom ! and I’ll make no 


IIOMEV/ARD BOUND. 


317 


more account of the matter. Mr. Leach, give the people a little 
encouragement. There is enough left in the jug that you’ll find 
in the stern sheets of the pinnace ; and then turn-to, and strike 
in all this dunnage, that the Arabs have been scattering on the 
sands. We’ll stow it when we get the ship into an easier bed 
than the one in which she is now lying.” 

This was the signal for commencing work ; and these 
straightforward tars, who had just been in the confusion and 
hazards of a fight, first took their grog, and then commenced 
their labor in earnest. As they had only, with their knowledge 
and readiness, to repair the damage done by the ignorant and 
hurried Arabs, in a short time everything was on board the 
ship again, when their attention was directed to the situation of 
the vessel itself. Not to anticipate events, however, we will 
now return to the party in the launch. 

The reader will readily imagine the feelings with which Mr. 
Effingham and his party listened to the report of the first gun. 
As they all remained below, they were ignorant who the in- 
dividual really was that kept pacing the roof over their heads, 
though it was believed to be the second mate, agreeably to the 
arrangement made by Captain Truck. 

“ My eyes grow dim,” said Mr. Effingham, who was looking 
through a glass ; “ will you try to see what is passing, Eve ? ” 

“ Father, I cannot look,” returned the pallid girl. “ It is 
misery enough to hear these frightful guns.” 

“ It is awful ! ” said Nanny, folding her arms about her 
child, “ and I wonder that such gentlemen as Mr. John and 
Mr. Powis should go on an enterprise so wicked ! ” 

“ Voulez-vous avoir la complaisajice , monsieur ? ” said Made- 
moiselle Viefville, taking the glass from the unresisting hand 
of Mr. Effingham. “ Ha ! le combat commence en effet ! ” 

“ Is it the Arabs who now fire ? ” demanded Eve, unable, 
in spite of terror, to repress her interest. 

“ Non , c’est cct admirable jeune homme , Monsieur Blunt , qui 
devance toils les an t res ! ” 

“And now, mademoiselle, that must surely be the bar- 
barians ? ” 

“ Du tout. Les sauvages fuient. C' est encore du bateau de 
Monsieur Blunt qiP on tire. Quel beau courage ! son bateau est 
toujours des premiers ! ” 

“ That shout is frightful ! Do they close ? ” 

“ On crie des deux parts , je crois. Le vieux capitaine est en 
avant a present , et Monsieur Blunt s'arrete /” 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


3 lS 

“ May Heaven avert the danger ! Do you see the gentle- 
men at all, Mademoiselle ? ” 

“ La fumee est trop epaisse. Ah / les viola ! On tire encore 
de son bateau.” 

“ Eh bien , mademoiselle ?” said Eve tremulously, after a 
long pause. 

“ C’est deja Jini. Les Arabes se retirent et nos amis se sont em- 
pdres du batiment. Cele a ele V affaire d'un moment , et que le com- 
bat a ete glorieux ! Ces jeunes gens sont vraiment digues d'etre 
Francais , et le vieux capitaine , aussi.” 

“ Are there no tidings for us, mademoiselle ? ” asked Eve, 
after another long pause, during which she had poured out her 
gratitude in trembling, but secret thanksgivings. 

“ Non, pas encore. Lis se felicitent, je crois.” 

“ It’s time, I’m sure, ma’am,” said the meek-minded Ann, 
“ to send forth the dove, that it may find the olive branch. 
War and strife are too sinful to be long indulged in.” 

“ There is a boat making sail in this direction,” said Mr. 
Effingham, who had left the glass with the governess, in com- 
plaisance to her wish. 

“ Oui, c' est le bateau de Monsieur Bhmt.” 

“ And who is in it ? ” demanded the father, for the meed 
of a world could not have enabled Eve to speak. 

u Je vois Monsieur Sharp — oui , c’est bien lid.” 

“ Is he alone ? ” 

“ Non, il y en a deux — mais — oui — c’est Monsieur Blunt , — 
noire jeune heros ! ” 

Eve bowed her face, and even while her soul melted in 
gratitude to God, the feelings of her sex caused the telltale 
blood to suffuse her features to the brightness of crimson. 

Mr. Effingham now took the glass from the spirited French- 
woman, whose admiration of brilliant qualities had overcome 
her fears, and he gave a more detailed and connected account 
of the, situation of things near the ship, as they presented them- 
selves to a spectator at that distance. 

Notwithstanding they already knew so much, it was a pain- 
ful and feverish half hour to those in the launch, the time that 
intervened between this dialogue and the moment when the 
boat of the Dane came alongside of their own. Every face was 
at the windows, and the young men were received like deliv- 
erers, in whose safety all felt a deep concern. 

“But, cousin Jack,” said Eve, across whose speaking coun- 
tenance apprehension and joy cast their shadows and gleams 
like April clouds driving athwart a brilliant sky, “ my father has 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


319 

not been able to discover his form among those who move about 
on the bank.” 

The gentlemen explained the misfortune of Mr. Monday, 
and related the manner in which John Effingham had assumed 
the office of nurse. A few delicious minutes passed ; for noth- 
ing is more grateful than the happiness that first succeeds a 
victory, and the young men proceeded to lift the kedge, assisted 
by the servant of Mr. Effingham. The sails were set ; and in 
fifteen minutes the raft- — the long-desired and much coveted-raft 
— approached the inlet. 

Paul steered the larger boat, and gave to Mr. Sharp direc- 
tions how to steer the other. The tide was flowing into the 
passage ; and, by keeping his weatherly position, the young man 
carried his long train of spars with so much precision into its 
opening, that, favored by the current, it was drawn through 
without touching a rock, and brought in triumph to the very 
margin of the bank. Here it was secured, the sails and cord- 
age were brought ashore, and the whole party landed. 

The last twenty hours seemed like a dream to all the females 
as they again walked the solid sand in security and hope. They 
had now assembled every material of safety, and all that remained 
was to get the ship off the shore, and to rig her ; Mr. Leach 
having already reported that she was as tight as the day she 
left London. 




CHAPTER XXVII. 

Would I were in an ale-house in London! 

I would give all my fame for a pot of ale and safety. 

Henry Vth. 

Mademoiselle Viefville, with a decision and intelligence 
that rendered her of great use in moments of need, hastened to 
offer her services to the w'ounded man, while Eve, attended by 
Ann Sidley, ascended the ship and made her way into the cab- 
ins, in the best manner the leaning position of the vessel al- 
lowed. Here they found less confusion than might have been 
expected, the scene being ludicrous, rather than painful, for Mr. 
Monday was in his stateroom excluded from sight. 

In the first place, the soi-disa?it Sir George Templemore was 
counting over his effects, among wdiich he had discovered a sad 


3 2 ° 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


deficiency in coats and pantaloons. The Arabs had respected 
the plunder, by compact, with the intention of making a fair 
distribution on the reef ; but, with a view to throw a sop to the 
more rapacious of their associates, one room had been sacked by 
the permission of the sheiks. This unfortuate room happened to 
be that' of Sir George Templemore, and the patent razors, the 
East Indian dressing-case, the divers toys, to say nothing of in- 
numerable vestments which the young man had left ’paraded in 
his room, for the mere pleasure of feasting his eyes on them, 
had disappeared. 

“ Do me the favor, Miss Effingham,” he said, appealing to 
Eve, of whom he stood habitually in awe, from the pure neces- 
sity of addressing her in his distress, or of addressing no one, 
“ do me the favor to look into my room, and see the unprinci- 
pled manner in which I have been treated. Not a comb jior a 
razor left ; not a garment to make myself decent in ! I’m sure 
such conduct is quite a disgrace to the civilization of barbarians 
even, and I shall make it a point to have the affair duly repre- 
sented to his majesty’s ministe.r the moment I arrive in New 
York. I sincerely hope you have been better treated, though I 
think, after this specimen of their principles, there is little hope 
for any one : I’m sure we ought to be grateful they did not 
strip the ship. I trust we shall all make common cause against 
them the moment we arrive.” 

“ We ought indeed, sir,” returned Eve, who, while she had 
known from the beginning of his being an impostor, was willing 
to ascribe his fraud to vanity, and who now felt charitable to- 
wards him on account of the spirit he had shown in the combat ; 
“though E trust we shall have escaped better. Our effects were 
principally in the baggage-room, and that, I understand from 
Captain Truck, has not been touched.” 

“ Indeed you are very fortunate, and I can only wish that 
the same good luck had happened to myself. But then, you 
know. Miss Effingham, that one has need of his little comforts, 
and, as for myself, I confess to rather a weakness in that way.” 

“ Monstrous prodigality and wastefulness ! ” cried Saunders, 
as Eve passed on towards her own cabin, willing to escape any 
more of Sir George’s complaints. “Just be so kind, Miss Ef- 
fingham, ma’am, to look into this here pantry, once ! Them 
niggers, I do believe, have had their fingers in everything, and 
it will take Toast and me a week to get things decorous and 
orderly again. Some of the shrieks ” (for so the steward styled 
the chiefs) “have been yelling well in this place, I’ll engage, 
as you may see, by the manner in which they have spilt the 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


y 1 

mustard and mangled that cold duck. I’ve a most mortal awer- 
sion to a man that cuts up poultry against the fibers ; and, 
would you think it, Miss Effingham, ma’am, that" the last gun 
Mr. Blunt fired, dislocated, or otherwise diwerted, about half a 
dozen of the fowls that happened to be in the way ; for I let all 
the poor wretches out of the coops, that they might make their 
own livings should we never come back. I should think that 
as polite and experienced a gentleman as Mr. Blunt might have 
,shot the Arabs instead of my poultry ! ” 

“ So it is,” thought Eve, as she glanced into the pantry and 
proceeded. “ What is considered happiness to-day gets to be 
misery to-morrow, and the rebukes of adversity are forgotten 
the instant prosperity resumes its influence. Either of these 
men, a few hours since, would have been most happy to have 
been in this vessel, as a home, or a covering for their heads, 
and how they quarrel with their, good fortune because it is want- 
ing in some accustomed superfluity or pampered indulgence.” 

We shall leave her with this wholesome reflection uppermost, . 
to examine into the condition of her own room, and return to 
the deck. 

As the hour was still early, Captain Truck having once quieted 
his feelings, went to work with zeal, to turn the late success to 
the best account. The cargo that had been discharged was 
soon stowed again, and the next great object was to get the ship 
afloat previously to hoisting in the new spars. As the'kedges 
still lay on the reef, and all the anchors remained in the places 
where they had originally been placed, there was little to do 
but to get ready to heave upon the chains as soon as the tiae 
rose. Previously to commencing this task, however, the inter- 
vening time was well employed in sending down the imperfect 
hamper that w r as aloft, and in getting up shears to hoist out the 
remains of the foremast, as well as the jury mainmast, the latter 
of which, it will be remembered, was only fitted two days before. 
All the appliances used on that occasion being still on deck, 
and everybody lending a willing hand, this task was completed 
by noon/ The jury-mast gave little trouble, but was soon lying 
on the bank ; and then Captain Truck, the shears having been 
previously shifted, commenced lifting the broken foremast, and 
just as the cooks announced that the dinner was ready for the 
people, the latter safely deposited the spar on the sands. 

“ ‘ Here, a sheer hulk, lies poor Tom Bowline,’ ” said Cap- 
tain Truck to Mr. Blunt, as the crew came up the staging in 
their way to the galley, in quest of their meal. “ I have not 
beheld the Montauk without a mast since the day she lay a 


HOME W A RD BO UND. 


3 2 3 

new-born child at the shipyards. I see some half a dozen of 
these mummified scoundrels dodging about on the shore yet, 
though the great majority, as Mr. Dodge would say, have man- 
ifested a decided disposition to amuse themselves with a further 
acquaintance with the Dane. In my humble opinion, sir, that 
poor deserted ship will have no more inside of her by night, 
than one of Saunders’ ducks that have been dead an hour. That 
hearty fellow, Mr. Monday, is hit, I fear between wind and 
water, Leach ? ” 

“ He is in a bad way, indeed, as I understand from Mr. 
John Effingham, who very properly allows no one to disturb 
him, keeping the stateroom door closed on all but himself and 
his own man.” 

“ Ay, ay, that is merciful ; a man likes a little quiet when 
he is killed. As soon as the ship is more fit to be seen, how- 
ever, it will become my duty to wait on him in order to see that 
nothing is wanting. We must offer the poor man the consola- 
tion of religion, Mr. Blunt.” 

“ They would certainly be desirable had we one qualified 
for the task.” 

“ I can’t say as much in that way for myself perhaps, as I 
might, seeing that my father was a priest. But then, we masters 
of packets have occasion to turn our hands to a good many odd 
jobs. As soon as the ship is snug, I shall certainly take a 
look at the honest fellow. Pray, sir, what became of Mr. Dodge 
in the skirmish ? ” 

.•> Paul smiled, but he prudently answered, “ I believe he oc- 
cupied himself in taking notes of the combat, and I make no 
doubt will do you full justice in the Active Inquirer, as soon 
as he gets its columns again at his command.” 

“ Too much learning, as my good father used to say, has 
made him a little mad. But I have a grateful heart to-day, Mr. 
Blunt, and will not be critical. I did not perceive Mr. Dodge 
in the conflict, as Saunders calls it, but there were so many of 
those rascally Arabs, that one had not an opportunity of seeing 
much else. We must get the ship outside of this reef with as 
little delay as possible, for to tell you a secret ” — here the cap- 
tain dropped his voice to a whisper — “ there are but two 
rounds apiece left for the small arms, and only one cartridge 
for the four-pounder. I own to you a strong desire to be in 
the offing.” 

“ They will hardly attempt to board us, after the specimen 
they have had of what we can do.” 

“ No one knows, sir ; no one knows. They keep pouring 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


323 


down upon the coast, like crows on the scent of a carrion, and 
once done with the Dane, we shall see them in hundreds prowl- 
ing around us like wolves. How much do we want of high' 
water ? ” 

“ An hour, possibly. I do not think there is much time to 
lose before the people get to work at the windlass.” 

Captain Truck nodded, and proceeded to look into the condi- 
tion of his ground tackle. It was a joyous but anxious moment 
when the handspikes were first handled, and the slack of one 
of the chains began to come. The ship had been upright 
several hours, and no one could tell how hard she would hang 
on the bottom. As the chain tightened, the gentlemen, the 
officers included, got upon the bows and looked anxiously at the 
effect of each heave ; for it was a nervous thing to be stranded 
on such a coast, even after all that had occurred. 

“ She winks, by George ! ” cried the captain ; “ heave 
together, men, and you will stir the sand ! ” 

The men did heave, gaining inch by inch, until no effort 
could cause the ponderous machine to turn. The mates, and 
then the captain, applied their strength in succession and but 
half a turn more was gained. Everybody was now summoned, 
even to the passengers, and the 'enormous strain seemed to 
threaten to tear the fabric asunder; but still the ship was im- 
movable. 

“ She hangs hardest forward, sir,” said Mr. Leach : “suppose 
we run up the stern-boat ? ” 

This expedient was adopted, and so nearly were the count- 
eracting powers balanced, that it prevailed. A strong heave 
caused the ship to start, and an inch more of tide aided the ef- 
fort, and then the vast hull yielded slowly to the purchase, 
gradually turning towards the anchor, until the quick blows of 
^the pall announced that the. vessel was fairly afloat again. 

“ Thank God for that, as for all his mercies ! ” said Captain 
Truck. “ Heave the hussy up to her anchor, Mr. Leach, when 
we will cast an eye to her moorings.” 

All this was done, the ship being effectually secured, with 
due attention to a change in the wind, that now promised to be 
permanent. Not a moment was lost ; but, the sheers being 
still standing, the foremast of the Dane was floated alongside, 
fastened to, and hove into its new berth, with as much rapidity 
as comported with care. When the mast was fairly stepped, 
Captain Truck rubbed his hands with delight, and immediately 
commanded his subordinate to rig it, although by this time the 
turn of the day had considerably passed. 


3 2 4 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


“ This is the way with us seamen, Mr. Effingham,” he ob- 
served ; “ from the fall to the fight, and then again from the 
fight to the fall. Our work, like women’s, is never done ; 
whereas you landsmen knock off^vith the sun, and sleep while 
the corn grows. I have always owed my parents a grudge for 
bringing me up to a dog’s life.” 

“ I had understood it was a choice of your own, captain.” 

“ Ay — so far as running away and shipping without their 
knowledge was concerned, perhaps it was ; but then it was 
their business to begin at the bottom, and to train me up in 
such a manner that I would not run away. The Lord forgive 
me, too, for thinking amiss of the two dear old people; for, to 
be candid with you, they were much too good to have such a 
son ; and I honestly believe they loved me more than I loved 
myself. Well, I’ve the consolation of knowing I comforted the 
old lady with many a pound of capital tea after I got into the 
China trade, ma’amselle.” 

“ She was fond of it ? ” observed the governess politely. 

“ She relished it very much, as a horse takes to oats, or a 
child to custard. That and snuff and grace, composed her 
principal consolations.” 

“ Qiioi ? ” demanded the governess, looking towards Paul for 
an explanation. • 

“ Grace, mademoiselle / la grace de Dieu” 

“ Bien ! ” 

“ It’s a sad misfortune, after all, to lose a mother, ma’am- 
selle. It is like cutting all the headfasts, and riding altogether 
by the stern ; for it is letting go the hold of what has gone be- 
fore to grapple with the future. It is true that I ran away from 
my mother when a youngster, and thought little of it ! but 
when she took her turn and ran away from me, I began to feel 
that I had made a wrong use of my legs. What are the tiding^ 
from poor Mr. Monday ? ” 

“ I understand he does not suffer greatly, but that he grows 
weaker fast,” returned Paul. “ I fear there is little hope of 
his surviving such a hurt.” 

The captain had got out a cigar, and hadbeckoned to Toast 
for a coal ; but changing his mind suddenly, he broke the to- 
bacco into snuff, and scattered it about the deck. 

“ Why the devil is not that rigging going up, Mr. Leach ? ” 
he cried, fiercely. “ It is not my intention to pass the winter 
at these moorings, and I solicit a little more expedition.” 

“ Ay ay, sir,” returned the mate, one of a class habitually 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


325 

patient and obedient ; “ bear a hand, my lads, and get the 
strings into their places.” 

* “ Leach,” continued the captain, more kindly, and still 
working his fingers unconsciously, “ come this way, my good 
friend, I have not expressed to you, Mr. Leach, all I wish to 
say of your good conduct in this late affair. You have stood 
by me like a gallant fellow throughout the whole business, and 
I shall not hesitate about saying as much when we get in. It 
is my intention to write a letter to the owners, which no doubt 
they’ll publish ; for whatever they have got to say against 
America, no one will deny it is easy to get anything published. 
Publishing is victuals and drink to the nation. You may de- 
pend on having justice done you.” 

“ I never doubted it, Captain Truck.” 

“ No, sir; and you never winked. The mainmast does not 
stand up in a gale firmer than you stood up to the niggers.” 

“ Mr. Effingham, sir — and Mr. Sharp — and particularly Mr. 
Blunt: — •” 

“ Let me alone to deal with them. Even Toast acted like 
a man. Well, Leach, they tell me poor Monday must slip, 
after all.” 

“ I am very sorry to hear it, sir ; Mr. Monday laid about him 
like a soldier ! ” 

“ He did, indeed ; but Bonaparte himself has been obliged 
to give up the ghost, and Wellington must follow him some 
day ; even old Putnam is dead. Either you or I, or both of us, 
Leach, will have to throw in some of the consolations of religion 
on this mournful occasion.” 

“ There is Mr. Effingham, sir, or Mr. John Effingham ; 
elderly gentlemen with more scholarship.” 

“ That will never do. All they can offer, no doubt, will be 
acceptable, but we owe a duty to the ship. The officers of a 
packet are not graceless horse-jockeys, but sober, discreet men, 
and it becomes them to show that they have some education, 
and the right sort of stuff in them on an emergency. I expect 
you will stand by me, Leach, on this melancholy occasion, as 
stoutly as you stood by me this morningA 

“I humbly hope, sir, not to disgrace the vessel, but it is 
likely Mr. Monday is a Church of England man, and we both 
belong to the Saybrook Platform ! ’ 

“ Ah ! the devil ! — I forgot that ! But religion is religion ; 
old line or new line ; and I question if a man so near unmoor- 
ing will be very particular. The great thing is consolation, 
and that we must contrive to give him, by hook or by crook, 


3 2 ° 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


when the proper moment comes; and now. Mr. Leach, let the 
people push matters, and we shall have everything up forward, 
and that mainmast stepped yet by ‘ sunset ; ‘ or it would be 
more literal so say ‘ sun-down ; ’ ” Captain Truck, like a true 
New-England-man, invariably using a provincialism that has 
got to be so general in America. 

The work proceeded with spirit, for every one was anxious 
to get the ship out of a berth that was so critical, as well from 
the constant vicinity of the Arabs as from the dangers of the 
weather. The wind baffled too, as it is usual on the margin of 
the trades, and at times it blew from the sea, though it con- 
tinued light, and the changes were of short continuance. As 
Captain Truck hoped, when the people ceased work at night, 
the fore and fore-top-sail-yards were in their places, the top-gal- 
lant-mast was fitted, and, with the exception of the sails, the ship 
was what is called a-tanto, forward. Aft, less had been done, 
though by the assistance of the supernumeraries, who con- 
tinued to lend their aid, the two lower masts were stepped, 
though no rigging could be got over them. The men volun- 
teered to work by watches through the night, but to this Cap- 
tain Truck would not listen, affirming that they had earned 
their suppers and a good rest, both of which they should have. 

The gentlemen, who merely volunteered an occasional drag, 
cheerfully took the look-outs, and as there were plenty of fire* 
arms, though not much powder, little apprehension was enter- 
tained of the Arabs. As was expected, the night passed away 
tranquilly, and every one arose with the dawn refreshed and 
strengthened. 

The return of day, however, brought the Arabs down upon 
the shore in crowds ; for the last gale, which had been un- 
usually severe, and the tidings of the wrecks, which had been 
spread by means of the dromedaries far and wide, had col- 
lected a force on the coast that began to be formidable through 
sheer numbers. The Dane had been effectually emptied, and 
plunder had the same effect on these rapacious barbarians that 
blood is known to produce on the tiger. The taste had be- 
gotten an appetite, atfd from the first appearance of the light, 
those in the ship saw signs of a disposition to renew the at- 
tempt on their liberty. 

Happily, the heaviest portion of the work was done, and 
Captain Truck determined, rather than risk another conflict 
with a force that was so much augmented, to get the spars on 
board, and to take the ship outside of the reef, without waiting 
to complete her equipment. His first orders, therefore, when 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


327 

all hands were mustered, were for the boats to get in the 
kedges and the stream anchor, and otherwise to prepare to 
move the vessel. In the mean time other gangs were busy in 
getting the rigging over the mastheads, and in setting it up. 
As the lifting of the anchors with boats was heavy work, by 
the time they were got on board and stowed it was noon, and 
all the yards were, aloft, though not a sail was bent in the 
vessel. 

Captain Truck, while the people were eating, passed 
through the ship examining every stay and shroud : there were 
some makeshifts it is true, but on the whole he was satisfied, 
though he plainly saw that the presence of the Arabs had 
hurried matters a little, and that a good many drags would 
have to be given as soon as they got beyond danger, and that 
some attention must be paid to seizings; still, what had been 
done would answer very well for moderate weather, and it was 
too late to stop to change. 

The trade wind had returned, and blew steadily as if finally 
likely to stand ; and the water outside of the reef was smooth 
enough to permit the required alterations, now that the heavier 
spars were in their places. 

The appearance of the Montauk certainly was not as 
stately and commanding as before the wreck, but there was an 
air of completeness about it that augured well. It was that of 
a ship of seven hundred tons, fitted with spars intended for a 
ship of five hundred. The packet a little resembled a man of 
six feet, in the coat of a man of five feet nine, and yet the 
discrepancy would not be apt to be noticed by any but the 
initiated. Everything essential was in its place, and reason- 
ably well secured, and, as the Dane had been rigged for a 
stormy sea, Captain Truck felt satisfied he might, in his present 
plight, venture on the American coast even in winter, without 
incurring unusual hazard. 

As soon as the hour of work arrived, therefore, a boat was 
sent to drop a kedge as near the inlet as it would be safe to 
venture, and a little to windward of it. By making a calcula- 
tion, and inspecting his buoys, which still remained where he 
had placed them, Captain Truck found that he could get a nar- 
row channel of sufficient directness to permit the ship to be 
warped as far as this point in a straight line. Everything but 
the boats was now got on board, the anchor by which they rode 
was hove up, and the warp was brought to the _ capstan, when 
the vessel slowly began to advance towards the inlet. 

This movement was a signal to the Arabs, who poured down 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


328 

on both reefs in hundreds, screaming and gesticulating like 
maniacs. It required good nerves and some self-reliance to 
advance in the face of such a danger, and this so much the 
more, as the barbarians showed themselves in the greatest 
force on the northern range of rocks, which offered a good 
shelter for their persons, completely raked the channel, and, 
moreover, lay so near the spot where the kedge had been 
dropped, that one might have jerked a stone from the one to the 
other. To add to the awkwardness of the affair, the Arabs 
began to fire with those muskets that are of so little service in 
close encounters, but which are notorious for sending their 
shot with great precision from a distance. The bullets came 
thick upon the ship, though the stoutness of the bulwarks for- 
ward, and their height, as yet protected the men. 

In this dilemma, Captain Truck hesitated about continuing 
to haul ahead, and he sent for Mr. Blunt and Mr. Leach for a 
consultation. Both these gentlemen advised perseverance, and 
as the counsel of the former will succinctly show the state of 
things, it shall be given in his own words. 

“ Indecision is always discouraging to one’s friends, and en- 
couraging to one’s enemies,” he said, “ and I recommend per- 
severance. The nearer we haul to the rocks, the greater will 
be our command of them, while the more the chances of the 
Arabs’ throwing their bullets on our decks will be diminished. 
Indeed, so long as we ride head to wind, they cannot fire low 
enough to effect their object from the northern reef, and on the 
southern they will not venture very near, for want of cover. It 
is true it will be impossible for us to bend our sails or to send 
out a boat in the face of so heavy a fire, while our assailants 
are so effectually covered ; but we may possibly dislodge them 
with the gun, or with our small-arms, from the decks. If not, 
I will head a party into the tops, from which I will undertake 
to drive them out of the reach of our muskets in five minutes.” 

*- Such a step would be very hazardous to those who ven- 
tured aloft.” 

“ It would not be without danger, and some loss must be 
expected ; but they who fight must expect risks.” 

“ In which case it will be the business of Mr. Leach and 
myself to head the parties aloft. If we are obliged to console 
the dying, damn me, but we are entitled to the privilege of 
fighting the living.” 

“ Ay, ay, sir,” put in the mate ; “ that stands to reason.” 

“ There are three tops, gentlemen,” returned Paul, mildly, 
“ and I respect your rights too much to wish to interfere with 


HOME WAX D BOUND. 


3 2 9 

them. We can each take one, and the effect will be in propor- 
tion to the greater means we employ, — one vigorous assault be- 
ing worth a dozen feints.” 

Captain Truck shook Paul heartily by the hand, and adopted 
his advice. When the young man had retired, he turned to the 
mate, and said, — 

“ After all, these men-of-war’s men are a little beyond us in 
the science of attack and defence, though I think I could give 
him a hint in the science of signs. I have had two or three 
touches at privateering in my time, but no regular occupation 
in your broadside work. Did you see how Mr. Blunt handled 
his boat yesterday ? As much like two double blocks and a 
steady drag, as one belaying-pin is like another, and as coolly as 
a great lady in London looks at one of us in a state of nature. 
For my pari, Leach, I was as hot as mustard, and ready to cut the 
throat of the best friend I had on earth ; whereas he was smil- 
ing as I rowed past him, though I could hardly see his face for 
the smoke of his own gun.” 

“ Yes, sir, that’s the way with your regular builts. I’ll 
warrant you he began young, and had kicked all the passion 
out of himself on old salts, by the time he was eighteen. He 
doesn’t seem, neither, like one of the true d — n-my-eye breed ; 
but it’s a great privilege to a man in a passion to be allowed to 
kick when and whom he likes.” 

“ Not he. I say, Leach, perhaps he might lend us a hand 
when it comes to the pinch with poor Monday. I have a great 
desire that the worthy fellow should take his departure de- 
cently.” 

“ Well, sir, I think you had better propose it. For my part, 
I’m quite willing to go into all three of the tops alone, rather 
than disappoint a dying man.” 

The captain promised to look to the matter, and then they 
turned their attention to the ship, which in a few more minutes 
was up as near the kedge as it was prudent to haul her. 


33 ° 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Speed, gallant bark, the tornado is past ; 

Staunch and secure thou hast weather’d the blast ; 

Now spread thy full sails to the wings of the morn, 

And soon the glad haven shall greet thy return. 

Park. 

The Montauk now lay close to the inlet, and even a little 
to windward of its entrance ; but the channel was crooked, not 
a sail was bent, nor was it possible to bend one properly with- 
out exposing the men to the muskets of the Arabs, who, from 
firing loosely, had got to be more wary and deliberate, aiming 
at the places where a head or an arm was occasionally seen. 
To prolong this state of things was merely to increase the evil, 
and Captain Truck determined to make , an effort at once to 
dislodge his enemies. 

With this view the gun was loaded in-board, filled nearly 
to the muzzle with slugs, and then it was raised with care to 
the top-gallant-forecastle, and cautiously pushed forward near 
the gunwale. Had the barbarians understood the construction 
of a vessel, they might have destroyed half the packet’s crew 
while they were thus engaged about the forecastle by firing 
through the planks ; but, ignorant of the weakness of the de- 
fences, they aimed altogether at the openings, or over the 
rails. 

By lowering the gaff the spanker was imperfectly bent ; that 
is to say, it was bent on the upper leach. The boom was got 
in under cover of the hurricane-house, and of the bundle of the 
sails ; the outhauler was bent, the boom replaced, the sail 
being hoisted with a little and a hurried lacing to the luff. This 
was not effected without a good deal of hazard, though the 
nearness of the bows of the vessel to the rocks prevented most 
of the Arabs from perceiving what passed so far aft. Still, 
others nearer to the shore caught glimpses of the actors, and 
several narrow escapes were the consequences. The second 
mate, in particular, had a shot through his hat within an inch 
of his head. By a little management, notwithstanding, the 
luff of the spanker was made to stand tolerably well ; and the 
ship had at least the benefit of this one sail. 

The Dane had been a seaman of the old school ; and, in- 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


331 


stead of the more modern spenser, his ship had been fitted with 
old-fashioned stay-sails. Of these it was possible to bend the 
main and mizzen stay-sails in tolerable security, provided the 
ends of the halyards could be got down. As this, however, 
would be nearly all aftersail, the captain determined to make 
an effort to overhaul the buntlines and leachlines of the fore- 
sail, at the same time that men were sent aloft after the ends 
of the halyards. He also thought it possible to set a fore- 
topmast staysail flying. 

No one was deceived in this matter. The danger and the 
mode of operating were explained clearly, and then Captain 
Truck asked for volunteers. These were instantly found ; Mr. 
Leach and the second mate setting the example by stepping 
forward as the first two. In order that the whole procedure 
may be understood, however, it shall be explained more fully. 

Two men were prepared to rum up on the foreyard at the 
word. Both of these, one of whom was Mr. Leach, carried 
three small balls of marline, to the end of each of which was 
attached a cod-hook, the barb being filed off in order to pre- 
vent its being caught. By means of these hooks the balls were 
fastened to the jackets of the adventurers. Two others stood 
ready at the foot of the main and mizzen riggings. By the 
gun lay Paul and three men ; while several of the passengers, 
and a few of the best shots among the crew, were stationed on 
the forecastle, armed with muskets and fowling-pieces. 

“ Is everybody ready ? ” called out the captain from the 
quarter-deck. 

“ All ready ! ” and “ Ay ! ay, sir ! ” were answered from th£ 
different points of the ship. 

“ Haul out the spanker ! ” 

As soon as this sail was set, the stern of the ship swung 
round towards the inlet, so as to turn the bow on which the gun 
was placed towards the part of the reef where the Arabs were 
in greatest numbers. 

“ Be steady, men ! and do not hurry yourselves, though 
active as wild-cats ! Up, and away ! ” 

The two fore-yard men, and the two by the after-masts, 
sprang into the rigging like squirrels, and were running aloft 
before the captain had done speaking. At the same instant one 
'•of the three by the gun leaped on the bowsprit, and ran out to- 
wards the stay. Paul, and the other two, rose and shoved the 
gun into its berth ; and the small-arms men showed themselves 
at the rails. 

So many, all in swift motion, appearing at the same moment 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


33 2 

in the rigging, distracted the attention of the Arabs for an in- 
stant, though scattering shots were fired. Paul knew that the 
danger would be greatest when the men aloft were stationary, 
and he was in no haste. Perhaps for half a minute he was 
busy in choosing his object, and in levelling the gun, and then 
it was fired. He had chosen the moment well ; for Mr. Leach 
and his fellow-adventurers were already on the fore-yard, and 
the Arabs had arisen from their covers in the eagerness of. 
taking aim. The small-arms men poured in their volley, and 
then little more could be done in the way of the offensive, 
nearly all the powder in the ship having been expended. 

It remains to tell the result of this experiment. Among the 
Arabs a few fell, and those most exposed to the fire from the 
ship were staggered, losing near a minute in their confusion ; 
but those more remote maintained hot discharges after the 
first surprise. The whole* time occupied in what we are going 
to relate was about three minutes ; the action of the several 
parts going on simultaneously. 

The adventurer forward, though nearest to the enemy, was 
least exposed. Partly covered by the bowsprit, he ran nimbly 
out on that spar till he reached the stay. Here he cut the-stop 
of the fore-topmast halyards, overhauled the running part, and 
let the block swing in. Pie then hooked a block that he had 
carried out with him, and in which the bight of a rope had been 
rove through the thimble, and ran in as fast as possible. This 
duty, which had appeared the most hazardous of all different 
adventures, on account of the proximity of the bowsprit to the 
reef, was the first done, and with the least risk ; the man being 
partly concealed by the smoke of the gun, as well as .by the 
bowsprit. He escaped uninjured. 

As the two men aft pursued exactly the same, course, the 
movements of one will explain those of the other. On reaching 
the yard, the adventurer sprang on it, caught the hook of the 
halvard-block, and threw himself off without an instant’s hesi- 
tation, overhauling the halyards by his weight. Men stood in 
readiness below to check the fall by easing off the other end of 
the rope, and the hardy fellow reached the deck in safety. This 
seemed a nervous undertaking to the landsmen ; but the sea- 
men who so well understood the machinery of their vessel, made 
light of it. 

On the fore-yard, Mr. Leach passed out on one yard-arm, 
and his co-adventurer, a common seaman, on the other. Each 
left a hook in the knot of the inner buntline, as he went out, 
and dropped the ball of marline on deck. The same was done 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


333 


at the outer buntlines, and at the leachlines. Here the mate 
returned, according to his orders, leaped upon the rigging, and 
thence upon a backstay, when he slid on deck with a velocity 
that set aim at defiance. Notwithstanding the quickness of his 
motions, Mr. Leach received a trifling hit on the shoulder, and 
several bullets whizzed near him. 

The seaman on the other yard-arm succeeded equally well, 
escaping the smallest injury, until he had secured the leachline, 
when, knowing the usefulness of obtaining it, for he was on the 
weather side of the ship, he determined to bring in the end of 
the reef tackle with him. Calling out to let go the rope on the 
deck, he ran out to the lift, bent over and secured the desired 
end, and raised himself erect, with the intention to make a run 
in, on the top of the yard. Captain Truck and the second 
mate had both commanded him to desist in vain, for impunity 
from harm had rendered him foolhardy. In this perilous posi- 
tion he even paused to- give a cheer. The cry was scarcely 
ended when he sprang off the yard several feet upwards and fell 
perpendicularly towards the sea, carrying the rope in his hand. 
At first, most on board believed the man had jumped into the 
water as the least hazardous means of getting down, depending 
on the rope, and on swimming, for his security; but Paul point- 
ed out the spot of blood that stained the surface of the sea, at 
the point where he had fallen. The reef tackle was rounded 
cautiously in, and its end rose to the surface without the hand 
that had so lately grasped it. The man himself never re- 
appeared. 

Captain Truck had now the means of setting three stay-sails, 
the spanker, and the fore-course ; sails sufficient, he thought, to 
answer his present purposes. The end of the reef tackle, that 
had been so dearly bought, was got in, by means of a light 
line, which was thrown around it. 

The order was now given to brail the spanker, and to clap on 
and weigh the k'edge, which was done by the run. As soon as 
the ship was free of the bottom, the fore-topmast staysail was 
set flying, like a jib-topsail, by hauling out the tack, and sway- 
ing upon the halyards. The sheet was hauled to windward, and 
the helm put down; of course the bows of the ship began to 
fall off, and as soon as her head was sufficiently near her course, 
the sheet was drawn, and the wheel shifted. 

Captain Truck now ordered the foresail, which, by this time 
was ready, to be set. This important sail was got on the ves- 
sel, by bending the buntlines and leachlines to its head, and by 
hauling out the weather-head cringle by means of the reef tackle; 


33 4 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


As soon as this broad spread of canvas was on the ship, her 
motion was accelerated, and she began to move away from the 
spot, followed by the furious cries and menaces of the Arabs. 
To the latter no one paid any heed, but they were audible until 
drowned in distance. Although aided by all her spars, and the 
force of the wind on her hull, a body as large as the Montauk 
required some little time to overcome the vis inertia , and seve- 
ral anxious minutes passed before she was so far from the cover 
of the Arabs as to prevent their clamor from seeming to be in 
the very ears of those on board. When this did occur, it 
brought inexpressible relief, though it perhaps increased the 
danger, by increasing the chances of the bullets hitting objects 
on deck. 

The course at first was nearly before the wind, when the flat 
rock, so often named, being reached, the ship was compelled to 
haul up on an easy "bowline, in order to pass to windward of it. 
Here the staysails aft and the spanker were set, which aided in 
bringing the vessel to the wind, and the foretack was brought 
down. By laying straight out of the, pass, a distance of only a 
hundred yards, the vessel would be again clear of everything, 
and beyond all the. dangers of the coast, so long as the present 
breeze stood. But the tide set the vessel bodily towards the 
rock, and her condition did not admit of pressing hard upon a 
bowline. Captain Truck was getting to be uneasy, for he soon 
perceived that they were nearing the danger, though very grad- 
ually, and he began to tremble for his. copper. Still the ves- 
sel drew steadily ahead, and he had hopes of passing the outer 
edge of the rocks in safety. The outer edge was a broken, 
ragged, and pointed fragment, that would break in the planks 
should the vessel rest upon it an instant, while falling in that 
constant heaving and settling of the ocean, which now began to 
be very sensibly felt. After all his jeopardy, the old mariner 
saw that his safety was at a serious hazard, by one of those un- 
foreseen but common risks that environ the seaman’s life. 

“ Luff ! luff ! you can,” cried Captain Truck, glancing his 
eye from the rock to the sails, and from the sails to the rock. 
“ Luff, sir — you are at the pinch ! ” 

“ Luff it is, sir ! ” answered the man at the wheel, who stood 
abaft the hurricane-house, covered by its roof, over which he 
was compelled to look, to get a view of the sails. “ Luff I may, 
and luff it is, sir.” 

Paul stood at the captain’s side, the crew being ordered to 
keep themselves as much covered as possible, on account of 
the bullets of the Arabs, which were at this time pattering 
against the vessel, like hail at the close of a storm. 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


335 

“ We shall not weather that point of ragged rock,” exclaimed 
the young man, quickly; “and if we touch it the ship will be 
lost.” 

“ Let - her claw off,” returned the old man sternly. “Her 
cutwater is up with it already. Let her claw off.” 

The bows of the ship were certainly up with the danger, 
and the vessel was slowly drawing ahead ; but every moment 
its broadside was set nearer to the rock, which was now within 
fifty feet of them. The fore-chains were past the point, though 
little hope remained of clearing it abaft. A ship turns on her 
centre of gravity as on a pivot, the two ends inclining in opposite 
directions ; and Captain Truck hoped that as the bows were 
past the danger, it might be possible to throw the after-part of 
the vessel up to the wind, by keeping away, and thus clear the 
spot entirely. 

“ Hard up with your helm!” he shouted; “hard up! — 
Haul down the mizzen-staysail, and give her sheet ! ” 

The sails were attended to, but no answer came from the 
wheel, nor did the vessel change her course. * 

“ Hard up, I tell you, sir — hard up ! hard up, and be d — d 
to you ! ” 

The usual reply was not made. Paul sprang through the 
narrow gangway that led to the wheel. All that passed took 
but a minute, and yet it was the most critical minute that had 
yet befallen the Montauk ; for had she touched that rock but 
for an instant, human art could hardly have kept her above 
water an hour. 

“ Hard up, and be d — d to you ! ” repeated Captain Truck, 
in a voice of thunder, as Paul darted round the corner of the 
hurricane-house. 

The seaman stood at the wheel, grasping its spokes firmly, 
his eyes aloft as usual, but the turns of the tiller rope showed 
that the order was not obeyed. 

“ Hard up, man, hard up ! are you mad ? ” Paul uttered 
these words as he sprang to the wheel, which he made whirl 
with his own hands in the required direction. As for the sea- 
man, he yielded his hold without resistance, and fell like a log, 
as the wheel flew round. A ball had entered his back, and 
passed through his heart, and yet he had stood steadily to the 
spokes, as the true mariner always clings to the helm while 
life lasts. 

The bows of the ship fell heavily off, and her stern pressed 
up towards the wind ; but the trifling delay so much augmented 


33 6 HOMEWARD BOUND. 

the risk that nothing saved the vessel but the formation of the 
run and counter, which, by receding as usual, allowed room to 
escape the dangerous point, as the Montaukhove by on a swell. 

Paul could not see the nearness of the escape, but the purity 
of the water permitted Captain Truck and his mates to observe 
it with a distinctness that almost rendered them breathless. 
Indeed there was an instant when the sharp rock was hid be- 
neath the counter, and each momentarily expected to hear the 
grating of the fragment, as it penetrated the vessel’s bottom. 

“ Relieve that man at the wheel, and send him hither this 
moment,” said Captain Truck, in a calm stern voice, that was 
more ominous than an oath. 

The mate called a seaman, and passed aft himself to exe- 
cute the order. In a minute he and Paul returned, bearing the 
body of the dead mariner, when all was explained. 

“ Lord, thy ways are unsearchable ! ” muttered the old 
master, uncovering himself, as the corpse was carried past, “ and 
we are but as grains of seed, and^as the vain butterflies in thy 
hand ! ” 

The rock once cleared, an open ocean lay to leeward of the 
packet, and bringing the wind a little abaft the beam, she moved 
steadily from those rocks that had been the witnesses of all 
her recent dangers. It was not long before she was so distant 
that all danger from the Arabs ceased. The barbarians, 
notwithstanding, confined a dropping fire and furious gesticu- 
lations, long after their bullets and menaces became matters of 
indifference to those on board. 

The body of the dead man was laid between the masts, and 
the order was passed to bend the sails. As all was ready, in 
half an hour the Montauk was standing off the land unde'r her 
three topsails, the reef now distant nearly a league. The 
courses came next, when the top-gallant yards were crossed 
and the sails set ; the lighter canvas followed, and some time 
before the sun disappeared, the ship was under studding-sails, 
standing to the westward, before the trades. 

For the first time since he received the intelligence that 
the Arabs were the masters of the ship, Captain Truck now felt 
real relief. He was momentarily happy after the combat, but 
new cares had pressed upon him so sobn, that he could scarcely 
be said to be tranquil. Matters were now changed. His vessel 
was in good order, if not equipped for racing, and, as he was in 
a low latitude, had the trade winds to befriend him, and no 
longer entertained any apprehension of his old enemy the 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


337 

Foam, he felt as if a mountain had been removed from his 
breast. 

“ Thank God,” he observed to Paul, “ I shall sleep to- 
night without dreaming of Arabs or rocks, or scowling faces at 
New York. They may say that another man might haye shown 
more skill in keeping clear of such a scrape, but they will 
hardly say that another man could have got out of it better. 
All this handsome outfit, too, will cost the owners nothing — lit- 
erally nothing ; and I question if the poor Dane will ever appear 
to claim the sails and spars. I do not know that we are in 
possession of them exactly according to the law of Africa, for 
of that code I know little ; or according to the law of nations, 
for Vattel, I believe, has nothing on the subject; but we are in 
possession £o effectually, that, barring the nor’ westers on the 
American coast, I feel pretty certain of keeping them until we 
make the East River.” 

“ It might be better to bury the dead,” said Paul ; for he 
knew Eve would scarcely appear on deck as long as the body 
remained in sight. “ Seamen, you know, are superstitious on 
the subject of corpses.” 

“ I have thought of this, but hoped to cheat those two ras- 
cals of sharks that are following in our wake, as if they scented 
their food. It is an extraordinary thing, Mr. Blunt, that these 
fish should know when there is a body in a ship, and that they 
will follow it a hundred leagues to make sure of tfieir prey.” 

“ It would be extraordinary, if true ; but in what manner 
has the fact been ascertained ? ” 

“You see the two rascally pirates astern !” observed Mr. 
Leach. 

“ Very true ; but we might also see them were there no dead 
body about the ship. Sharks abound in this latitude, and I have 
seen several about the reef since we went in.” 

“ They’ll be disappointed as to poor Tom Smith,” said the 
mate, “ unless they dive deep for him. I have lashed one of 
Napoleon’s busts to the fine fellow’s feet, and he’ll not fetch 
up until he’s snugly anchored on the bottom.” 

“ This is a fitting hour for solemn feelings,” said the cap- 
tain, gazing about him at the heavens and the gathering gloom, 
of twilight. “ Call all hands to bury the dead, Mr. Leach. I 
confess I should feel easier myself as to the weather, were the 
body fairly out of the ship.” ' ^ 

While the mate went forward to muster the people the cap- 
tain took Paul aside with a request that he would perform the 
last offices for the deceased. 


33 ^ 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


“ I will read a chapter in the Bible myself,” he said, “for 
I should not like the people to see one of the crew go over- 
board, and the officers have no word to say in the ceremonies ; 
it might beget disrespect, and throw a slur on our knowledge ; 
but you jnan-of-war’s-inen are generally more regularly brought 
up to prayers than us liners, and if you have a proper book by 
you, I should feel infinitely obliged if you would give us a lift 
on this melancholy occasion.” 

Paul proposed that Mr. Effingham should be asked to offi- 
ciate, as he knew that gentleman read prayers in his cabin, to 
his own party, night and morning. 

“ Does he ? ” said the captain ; “ then he is my man, for he 
must have his hand in, and there will be no stammering or bog- 
gling. Av, ay ; he will fetch through on one tael?. Toast, go 
below, and present my compliments to Mr. Effingham, and say 
I should like to speak to him ; and, harkee, Toast, desire him 
to put a prayer-book in. his pocket, and then step into my state- 
room, and bring up the Bible you will find under the pillow. 
The Arabs had a full chance at the plunder ; but there is some- 
thing about the book that always takes care of it. Few rogues, 
I’ve often remarked, care about a Bible. They would sooner 
steal ten novels than one copy of the sacred writ. This of mine 
was my mother’s, Mr. Blunt, and I should have been a better 
man had I overhauled it oftener.” 

Wc pass . over most of the arrangements, and come at 
once to the service, and to the state of the ship, just as her 
inmates were aesembled on an occasion which no wantof for- 
nality can render anything but solemn and admonitory. The 
courses were hauled up, and the main-topsail had been laid to 
the mast, a position in which a ship has always an air of stately 
repose. The body was stretched on a plank that lay across a 
rail, the leaden bust being enclosed in the hammock that en- 
veloped it. A spot of blood on the cloth alone betrayed the 
nature of the death. Around the body were grouped the crew, 
while Captain Truck and his mates stood at the gangway. The 
passengers were collected on the quarter-deck, with Mr. Effing- 
ham, holding a prayerbook,.a little in advance. 

The sun had just dipped into the ocean,' and the whole 
western horizon was glorious with those soft, pearly, rainbow 
hues that adorn the evening and the morning of a low latitude, 
during the soft weather of th^ autumnal months. To the east- 
ward, the low line of coast was just discernible by the hillocks 
of sand, leaving the imagination to portray its solitude and 
wastes. The sea in all other directions was dark and gloomy, 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


339 


and the entire character of the sunset was that of a grand 
picture of ocean magnificence and extent, relieved by a sky in 
which the tints came and went like the well-known colors of 
the dolphin ; to this must be added the gathering gloom of 
twilight. 

Eve pressed the arm of John Effingham, and gazed with 
admiration and awe at the imposing scene. 

“ This is the seaman’s grave ! ” she whispered. 

“ And worthy it is to be the tomb of so gallant a fellow. 
The man died clinging to his post ; and Powis tells me that 
his hand was loosened from the wheel with difficulty.” 

They were silent, for Captain Truck uncovered himself, as 
did all around him, placed his spectacles, and opened the 
sacred volume. The old mariner was far from critical in his 
selections of readings, and he usually chose some subject that 
he thought would most interest his hearers, which were ordi- 
narily those that most interested himself. To him Bible was 
Bible, and he now turned to the passage in the Acts of the 
Apostles in which the voyage of St. Paul from Judea to Rome 
is related. This he read with steadiness, some quaintness of 
pronunication, and with a sort of breathing elasticity, whenever 
he came to those verses that touched particularly on the naviga- 
tion. 

Paul maintained his perfect self-command during this ex- 
traordinary exhibition, but an unbidden smile lingered around 
the handsome and chiselled month of Mr. Sharp. John Effing- 
ham’s curved face was sedate and composed, while the females 
were too much impressed to exhibit any levity. As to the 
crew, they listened in profound attention, occasionally exchang- 
ing glances whenever any of the nautical expedients struck 
them as being out of rule. 

As soon as this edifying chapter was ended, Mr. Effingham 
commenced the solemn rites for the dead. At the first sound 
of his voice, a calm fell on the vessel as if the Spirit of God 
had alighted from the clouds, and a thrill passed through the 
frames of the listeners. Those solemn words of the Apostle 
commencing with “ I am the resurrection and the life, saith the 
Lord, he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet he 
shall live : and whosever liveth and believeth in me, he shall 
never die,” could not have been better delivered. The voice ; 
intonation, utterance, and manner, of Mr. Effingham, were 
eminently those of a gentleman ; without pretension, quiet, 
simple, and mellow, while, on the other hand, they were feeling, 
dignified, distinct, and measured. 


340 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


When he pronounced the words “ I know that my Redeemer 
liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth : 
and though, after my skin, worms destroy my body, yet in my 
flesh shall I see God,” &c. &c. the men stared about them as 
if a real voice from heaven had made the declaration, and 
Captain Truck looked aloft like one expecting a trumpet-blast. 
The tears of Eve began to flow as she listened to the much-loved 
tones ; and the stoutest heart in that much-tried ship quailed. 
John Effingham made the responses of the psalm steadily, and 
Mr. Sharp and Paul soon joined him. But the profoundest 
effect was produced when the office reached those consoling 
but startling words from the Revelations, commencing with, 
“ I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me write, from 
henceforth blessed are the dead who die in the Lord,” &c.Captain 
Truck afterwards confessed that he thought he heard the very 
voice, and the men actually pressed together in their alarm. 
The plunge of the body was also a solemn instant. It went 
off the end of the plank feet foremost, and, carried rapidly 
down by the great weight of the lead, the water closed above 
it, obliterating every trace of the seaman’s grave. Eve thought 
that its exit resembled the few brief hours that draw the veil 
of oblivion around the mass of mortals when they disappear 
from earth. 

Instead of asking for the benediction at the close of the 
ceremony, Mr. Effingham devoutly and calmly commenced the 
psalm of thanksgiving for victory, “ if the Lord had not been on 
our side, now may we say, if the Lord himself had not been on 
our side, when men rose up against us, they would have swal- 
lowed us up quick, when they were so wrathfully displeased 
with us.” Most of the gentlemen joined in the responses, and the 
silvery voice of Eve sounded sweet and holy amid the breath- 
ings of the ocean. Te Deum Laudamus , “ We praise thee, O 
God ! we acknowledge thee to be the Lord ! All the earth 
both worship thee, the Father everlasting ; ” closed the offices, 
when Mr. Effingham dismissed the congregation with the usual 
layman’s request for. the benediction. 

Captain Truck had never been so deeply impressed with 
any religious ceremony, and when it ceased he looked wistfully 
over the side at the spot where the body had fallen, or where 
it might be supposed to have fallen — for the ship had drifted 
some distance — as one takes a last look at the grave of a friend. 

“ Shall we fill the main-topsail, sir ? ” demanded Mr. Leach, 
after waiting a minute or two in deference to his commander’s 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


341 


feelings ; “ or shall we hook on the yardtackles, and stow the 
launch ? ” 

“ Not yet, Leach ; not yet. It will be unkind to poor J ack 
to hurry away from his grave so indecently. I have observed 
that the people about the river always keep in sight till the 
last sod is stowed, and the -rubbish is cleared away. The fine 
fellow stood to those spokes as a close-reefed topsail in a gale 
stands the surges of the wind, and we owe him this little re- 
spect.” 

“ The boats, sir ? ” 

“ Let them tow a while longer. It will seem like deserting 
him to be rattling the vard-tackles, and stowing boats di- 
rectly over his head. Your gran’ther was a priest, Leach, and 
I wonder you don’t see the impropriety of hurrying away frofri 
a grave. A little reflection will hurt none of us.” 

The mate admired at a mood so novel for his commander, 
but he was fain to submit. The day was fast closing notwith- 
standing, and the skies were losing their brilliancy in hues that 
were still softer and more melancholy, as if nature delighted, 
too, in sympathizing with the feelings of these lone mariners 1 


CHAPTER XXIX. 

Sir, ’tis my occupation to be plain. 

Lear . 

The barbarians had done much less injury to the ship and 
her contents than under the circumstances could have been 
reasonably hoped, The fact that nothing could be effectually 
landed where she lay was probably the cause, the bales that 
had actually been got out of the ship, having been put upon the 
bank with a view to lighten her, more than for any other reason. 
The compact, too, between the chiefs had its influence proba- 
bly, though it could not have lasted long with so strong temp- 
tations to violate it constantly before the eyes of men habit- 
ually rapacious. 

Of course, one of the first things after each individual had 
ascertained his own losses, was to inquire into those of his 
neighbors, and the usual party in the ladies’ cabin was seated 
around the sofa of Eve, about nine in the evening, conversing 


342 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


on this topic, after having held a short but serious discourse 
on their recent escape. 

“ You tell me, John, that Mr. Monday has a desire to 
sleep ? ” observed Mr. Effingham, in the manner in which one 
puts an interrogation. 

“ He is easier, and dozes. I have left my man with him, 
with orders to summon me the instant he awakes.” 

A melancholy pause succeeded, and then the discourse took 
the channel from which it had been diverted. 

“ Is the extent of our losses in effects known ? ” asked Mr. 
Sharp. “ My man reports some trifling deficit, but nothing of 
any value.” 

“Your counterfeit,” returned Eve, smiling, “has been the 
principal sufferer. One would think by his plaints, that not a 
toy is left in Christendom.” 

“ So long as they have not stolen from him his good name 
I shall not complain, as I may have some use for it when we 
reach America, of which now, God be praised there are some 
flattering prospects.” 

“ I understand from my connections that the person who is 
known in the main cabin as Sir George Templemore, is not 
the person who is known as such in this,” observed John 
Effingham, bowing to Mr. Sharp, who returned his salute as 
one acknowledges an informal introduction. “ There are cer- 
tainly weak men to be found in high stations all over the world, 
but you will probably think I am doing honor to my own saga- 
city, when I say, that I suspected from the first that he was not 
the true Amphitryon. I had heard of Sir George Templemore, 
and had been taught to expect more in him than even a man of 
fashion — a man of the worlds — while this poor substitute can 
scarcely lay claim to be either.” 

John Effingham so seldom complimented that his kind words 
usually told, and Mr. Sharp acknowledged the politeness, more 
gratified than he was probably willing to acknowledge to him- 
self. The other could have heard of him only from Eve and 
her father, and it was doubly grateful to be spoken of favorably 
in such a quarter : he thought there was a consciousness in the 
slight suffusion that appeared on the face of the daughter, 
which led him to hope that even the latter had not considered 
him unworthy of recollection ; for he cared but little for the 
remembrances of Mr. Effingham, if they could all be transferred 
to his child. 

“ This person, who does me the honor to relieve me from 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


343 

the trouble of bearing my own name,” he resumed, “ cannot be 
of very lofty pretensions, or he would have aspired higher. I 
suspect him of being merely one of those silly young country- 
men of mine, of whom so many crowd stage-coaches and 
packets, to swagger over their less ambitious fellow-mortals 
with the strut and exactions of the hour.” 

“ And yet,, apart from his folly in ‘ sailing under false 
colors/ as our worthy captain would call it, the man seems well 
enough.” 

“A folly, cousin Jack,” said Eve with laughing eyes, • 
though she maintained a perfect demureness with her beautiful 
features — “ that he shares in common with so many others ! *’ 

“ Very true, though I suspect he has climbed to commit it, 
while others have been content to descend. The man himself 
behaved well yesterday, showing steadiness as well as spirit in 
the fray.” 

“ I forgive him his usurpation for his conduct on that occa- 
s on,’ f returned Mr. Sharp, “ and wish with all my heart the 
Arabs had discovered less affection for his curiosities. I 
should think that they must find themselves embarrassed to 
ascertain the uses of some of their prizes ;• such for instance, 
as the button-hooks, the shoe-horn, knives with twenty blades, 
and other objects that denote a profound civilization.” 

“ You have not spoken of your luck, Mr. Powis,” added 
Mr. Effingham ; “ I trust you have fared as well as most of us, 
though, had they visited their enemies according to the injury 
received from them, you would be among the heaviest of the 
sufferers. 

“ My loss,” replied Paul mournfully, “ is not much in pe- 
cuniary value, though irreparable to me.” 

A look of concern betrayed the general interest, for as he 
really seemed sad, there was a secret apprehension that his loss 
even exceeded that which his words would give them reason to 
suppose. Perceiving the curiosity that was awakened, and 
which was only sujDpressed by politeness, the young man 
added, — 

“ I miss a miniature that, to me, is of inestimable value.” 

Eve’s heart ' throbbed, while her eyes sunk to the carpet. 
The others seemed amazed, and, after a brief pause, Mr. Sharp 
observed, — 

“ A painting on its own account would hardly possess much 
value with such barbarians. Was the setting valuable ? ” 

“ It was of gold, of course, and had some merit in the way 
of workmanship. It has probably been taken as curious rather 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


344 

than for its specific value ; though to me, as I have just said, 
the ship itself could scarcely be of more account — certainly not 
as much prized.” 

“Many light articles have been merely mislaid ; taken away 
through curiosity or idleness, and left where the individual hap- 
pened to be at the moment of changing his mind,” said John 
Effingham ; “ several things of mine have been scattered 

through the cabins in this manner, and I understand that divers 
vestments of the ladies have found their way into the state- 
rooms of the other cabin ; particularly a night-cap of Mademoi- 
selle Viefville’s, that has been discovered in Captain Truck’s 
room, and which that gallant seaman has forthwith condemned 
as a lawful waif. As he never uses such a device on his head, 
he will be compelled to wear it next his heart. He will be com- 
pelled to convert it into a AA?r/y-cap.” 

“ Ciel ! if the excellent captain will carry us safe to New 
York,” coolly returned the governess, “he shall have the prize, 
de tout ?no?i coeur ; c’est tin homme brave , et c'est aussi un brave 
homme , a sa facon .” 

“ Here are two hearts concerned in the affair already, and 
no one can ioresee the consequences, but,” turning to Paul, 

“ describe this miniature, if you please, for there are many in 
the vessel, and yours is not the only one that has been mislaid.” 

“ It was a miniature of a female, and one, too, I think, that 
would be remarked for her beauty.” 

Eve felt a chill at her heart. 

“ If, sir, it is the miniature of an elderly lady,” said Ann 
Sidley, “ perhaps it is this which I found in Miss Eve’s room, 
and \yhich I intended to give to Captain Truck in order that it 
might reach the hands of its right owner.” 

Paul took the miniature, which he regarded coldly for a mo- 
ment, and then returned to the nurse. 

“ Mine is the miniature of a female under twenty,” he said, 
coloring as he spoke ; “ and is every way different from this.” 

This was the painful and humiliating moment when Eve 
Effingham was made to feel the extent and the nature of the 
interest she took in Paul Powis ; On all the previous occasions 
in which her feelings had been strongly awakened on his account 
she had succeeded in deceiving herself as to the motive, but now 
the truth was felt in that overwhelming form that no sensitive 
heart can distrust. 

No one had seen the miniature, though all observed the 
emotion with which Paul spoke of it, and all secretly wondered 
of whom it could be. 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


345 


“ The Arabs appear to have some such taste for the fine 
arts as distinguishes the population of a mushroom American 
city,” said John Effingham; “or one that runs to portraits, 
which are admired while the novelty lasts, and then are con- 
signed to the first spot that offers to receive them.” 

“ Are your miniatures all safe, Eve ? ” Mr. Effingham in- 
quired with interest; for among them was one of her mother 
that he had yielded to her. only through strong parental affec- 
tion, but which it would have given him deep pain to discover 
was lost, though John Effingham, unknown to him, possessed a 
copy. 

“ It is with the jewelry in the baggage-room, dearest father, 
and untouched of course. We are fortunate that our passing 
wants did not extend beyond our comforts, and luckily they are 
not of a nature to be much prized by barbarians. Coquetry 
and a ship have little in common, and Mademoiselle Viefville 
and myself had not much out to tempt the marauders.” 

As Eve uttered this, both the young men involuntarily 
turned their eyes towards her, each thinking that a being so 
fair stood less in need than common of the factitious aid of 
ornaments. She was dressed in a dark French chintz, that her 
maid had fitted to her person in a manner that it would seem 
none but a French assistant can accomplish, setting off her 
falling shoulders, finely moulded bust, and slender, rounded 
waist, in a way to present a modest outline of their perfection. 
The dress had that polished medium between fashion and its 
exaggeration, that always denotes a high association, and per- 
haps a cultivated mind — certainly a cultivated taste— offending 
neither usage on the one hand, nor self-respect and a chaste 
appreciation of beauty, on the other. Indeed Eve was distin- 
guished for that important acquisition to a gentlewoman, an 
intellectual or refined toilette ; not intellect and refinement in 
extravagance and caricature, but as they are displayed in fit- 
ness, simplicity, elegance, and the proportions. This much, 
perhaps, she owed to native taste, as the slight air of fashion, 
and the high air of a gentlewoman, that were thrown about her 
person and attire, were the fruits of an intimate connection 
with the best society of half the capitals of the European con- 
tinent. As an unmarried female, modesty, the habits of the 
part of the world in which she had so long dwelt, and her own 
sense of propriety, caused her to respect simplicity of appear- 
ance ; but through this, as it might be in spite of herself, shone 
qualities of a superior order. The little hand and foot, so 
beautiful and delicate, the latter just peeping from the dress 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


346 

under which it was usually concealed, appeared as if formed 
expressly to adorn a taste that was every way feminine and 
alluring. 

“It is one of the mysteries of the grand designs of Provi- 
dence, that men should exist in conditions so widely distant 
from each other,” said John Effingham abruptly, “ with a com- 
mon nature that can be so much varied by circumstances. It 
is almost humiliating to find one’s-self a man, when beings like 
these Arabs are to be classed as fellows.” 

“ The most instructed and refined, cousin Jack, may get a 
useful lesson, notwithstanding your disrelish for the con- 
sanguinity, from this very identity of nature,” said Eve, who 
made a rally to overcome feelings that she deemed girlish and 
weak. “ By showing us what we might be ourselves, we get an 
admonition of humility ; or by reflecting on the difference that 
is made by education, does itinot strike you that there is an 
encouragement to persevere until better things are attained ! ” 

“ This globe *is but a ball, and a ball, too, insignificant, even 
when compared with the powers of man,” continued the other. 
“ How many navigators now circle it ! even you, sir, may have 
done this, y6ung as you still are,” turning to Paul, who made 
a bow of assent : “ and yet, within these narrow limits, what 
wonderful varieties of physical appearance, civilization, laws, 
and even of color, do we find, all mixed up with points of start- 
ling affinity.” 

“ So far as a limited experience has enabled me, to judge, 
observed Paul, •“ I have everywhere found, not only the same 
nature, but a common innate sentiment of justice that' seems 
universal ; for even amidst the wildest scenes of violence, or 
of the most ungovernable outrages, this sentiment glimmers 
through the more brutal features of the being. The rights of 
property, for instance, are everywhere acknowledged ; the very 
wretch who steals whenever he can, apearing conscious of his 
crime, by doing it clandestinely, and as a deed that shuns ob- 
servation. All seem to have the same general notions of 
natural justice, and they are forgotten only through the policy 
of systems, irresistible temptation, the pressure of want, or the 
result of contention.” 

“ Yet, as a rule, man everywhere oppresses his weaker 
fellow.” 

“ True ; but he betrays consciousness of his error, directly 
or indirectly. One can show his sense of the magnitude of his 
crime even by the manner of defending it. As respects our 
late enemies, I cannot say I felt any emotion of animosity 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


347 

while the hottest engaged against them, for their usages have 
rendered their proceedings lawful.” 

“They tell me,” interrupted Mr. Effingham, “that it is 
owing to your presence of mind and steadiness that more blood 
was not shed unnecessarily.” x 

“ It may be questioned,” continued Paul, noticing this 
compliment merely by an inclination of the head, “ if civilized 
people have not reasoned themselves, under the influences of 
interest, into the commission of deeds quite as much opposed 
to natural justice as anything done by these barbarians. Per- 
haps no nation is perfectly free from the just imputation of 
having adppted some policy quite as unjustifiable in itself as 
the system of plunder maintained among the Arabs.” 

“ Do you count the rights of hospitality as nothing? ” 

“ Look at France, a nation distinguished for refinement, 
among its rulers at least. It was but the other day that the 
effects of the stranger who died in her territory were appro- 
priated to the uses of a monarch wallowing in luxury. Compare 
this law with the treaties that invited strangers to repair to the 
country, and the wants of the monarch who exhibited the 
rapacity, to the situation of the barbarians from whom we have 
escaped, and the magnitude of the temptation we offered, and 
it does not appear that the advantage is much with Christians. 
But the fate of shipwrecked mariners all over the world is 
notorious, in countries the most advanced in civilization they 
are plundered, if there is an opportunity, and, at need, fre- 
quently murdered.” 

“ This is a frightful picture of humanity,” said Eve shud- 
dering. “ I do not think that this charge can be justly 
brought against America.” 

“ That is far from certain. America has many advantages 
to weaken the temptation to crime, but she is very far from 
perfect. 'The people on some of her coasts have been accused 
of resorting to the old English practice of showing false lights, 
with a view to mislead vessels, and of committing cruel depreda- 
tions on the wrecked. In all things I believe there is a disposi- 
tion in man to make misfortune weigh heaviest on the unfor- 
tunate. Even the coffin in which we inter a friend costs more 
than any other piece of work of the same amount of labor and 
materials.” 

“ This is a gloomy picture of humanity, to be drawn by one 
so young,” Mr. Effingham mildly rejoined. 

“ I think it true. All men do not exhibit their selfishness 
and ferocity in the same way ; but there are few who do not 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


348 

exhibit both. As for America, Miss Effingham, she is fast 
getting vices peculiar to herself and her system, and, I think, 
vices which bid fair to bring her down, ere long, to the common 
level, altough I do not go quite so far in describing her de- 
merits as some of the countrymen of Mademoiselle Viefville 
have gone.” 

“ And what may that have been ? ” asked the governess 
eagerly, in English. 

“ Pourrie avant d'etre mure. Mure America is certainly far 
from being ; but I am not disposed to accuse her yet of being 
quite pourrie .” 

“ We had flattered ourselves,” said Eve, a little^ reproach- 
fully, “ with having at last found a countryman in Mr. Powis.” 

“ And how would that change the question ? Or, do you 
admit that an American can be no American, unless blind to 
the faults of the country, however great ? ” 

“ Would it be generous for a child to turn upon a parent that 
all others assail ? ” 

“ You put the case ingeniously, but scarrely with fairness. 
It is the duty of the parents to educate and correct the child, 
but it is the duty of the citizen to reform and improve the 
character of his country. How can the latter be done, if noth- 
ing but eulogies are dealt in ? With foreigners, one^ should 
not deal too freely with the faults of his country, though even 
with the liberal among them one wo'uld wish to be liberal, for 
foreigners cannot repair the evil ; but with one’s countrymen I 
see little use and much danger, in observing a silence as to 
faults. The American, of all others, it appears to me, should 
be the boldest in denouncing the common and national vices, 
since he is one of those who, by the institutions themselves, 
has the power to apply the remedy.” 

“ But- America is an exception, I think, or perhaps it would 
be better to say I feel , since all other people deride at, mock 
her, and dislike her. You will admit this yourself, Sir George 
Templemore ? ” 

“ By no means ; in England, now, I consider America to be 
particularly well esteemed.” 

Eve held up her pretty hands, and even Mademoiselle 
Viefville, usually so well-toned and self-restrained, gave a 
visible shrug. 

“ Sir George means in his county,” dryly observed John 
Effingham. 

“ Perhaps the parties would better understand each other,” 
said Paul, coolly, “were Sir George Templemore to'descend to 


HOME WAX D BOUND. 


3 49 

particulars. He belongs himself to the liberal school, and may 
be considered a safe witness.” 

“ I shall be compelled to protest against a cross-examina- 
tion on such a subject,” returned the baronet, laughing. “ You 
will be satisfied, I am certain, with my simple -declaration. 
Perhaps we still regard the Americans as taut soit pen rebels ; 
but that is a feeling that will soon cease.” 

“That is precisely the point on which I think liberal 
Englishmen usually do great justice to America, while it is on 
other points that they betray a national dislike.” 

“ England believes America hostile to herself ; and if love 
creates love, dislike creates dislike.” 

“ This is at least something like admitting the truth of the 
charge, Miss Effingham,” said John Effingham, smiling, “and 
we may dismiss the accused. It is odd enough that England 
should consider America as rebellious, as is the case with many 
Englishmen, I acknowledge, while, in truth, England herself 
was the rebel, and this, too, in connection with the very questions 
that produced the American revolution.” . 

“ This is quite new,” said Sir George, “ and I confess some 
curiosity to see how it can be made out.” 

John Effingham did not hesitate about stating his case. 

“ In the first place you are to forget professions and names,” 
he said, “ and to look only at facts and things. When America 
was settled, a compact was made, either in the way of charters 
or of organic laws, by which all the colonies had distinct rights* 
while, on the other hand, they confessed allegiance to the king. 
But in that age the English monarch was a king. He used his 
veto on the laws, for instance, and otherwise exercised his pre- 
rogatives. Of the two, he influenced parliament more than 
parliament influenced him. In such a state of things, countries 
separated by an ocean might be supposed to be governed 
equitably, the common monarch feeling a common parental 
regard for all his subjects! Perhaps distance might render 
him even more tender of the interest of those who were not 
present to protect themselves.” 

“ This is putting the case loyally, at least,” said Sir George, 
as the other paused for a moment. 

“ It is precisely in«*hat light that I wish to present it. The 
degree of power that parliament possessed over the colonies 
was a disputed point ; but I am willing to allow that parliament 
had all power.” 

“ In doing which, I fear, you will concede all the merits,” 
said Mr. Effingham. 


35 ° 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


“ I think not. Parliament then ruled the colonies absolutely 
and legally, if you please, under the Stuarts ; but the English 
rebelled against these Stuarts, dethroned them, and gave the 
crown to an entirely new family, — one with' only a remote 
alliance with the reigning branch. Not satisfied with this, the 
king was curtailed in his authority ; the prince, who might with 
justice be supposed to feel a common interest in all his sub- 
jects, became a mere machine in the hands of a body who re- 
presented little more than themselves, in fact, or a mere frag- 
ment of the empire, even in theory ; transferring the control of 
the colonial interest from the sovereign himself to a portion of 
his people, and that, too, a small portion. This was no longer 
a government of a prince who felt a parental concern for all 
his subjects, but a government of a clique of his subjects, who 
felt a selfish concern only for their own interests.” 

“ And did the Americans urge this reason for the revolt ? ” 
asked Sir George. “ It sounds new to me.” 

“ They quarrelled with the results, rather than with the 
cause. When they found that legislation was to be chiefly in 
the interests of England, they took the alarm, and seized their 
arms, without stopping to analyze causes. They probably were 
mystified top much with names and professions to see the real 
truth, though they got some noble glimpses of it.” 

“ I have never before heard this case put so strongly,” cried 
Paul Powis, “and yet I think it contains the whole merit of the 
controversy as a principle.” 

“ It is extraordinary how nationality blinds us,” observed 
Sir George, laughing. “I confess, Powis,” — the late events 
had produced a close intimacy and a sincere regard between 
these two fine young men, — “ that I stand in need of an ex- 
planation.” 

“You can conceive of a monarch,” continued John Effing- 
ham, “ who possesses an extensive and efficient power ? ” 

“ Beyond doubt ; nothing can be plainer than that.” 

“ Fancy this monarch to fall into the hands of a fragment 
of his subjects, who reduce his authority to a mere profession, 
and begin to wield it for their own especial benefit, no longer 
leaving him a free agent, though always using the authority in 
his name.” » 

“ Even that is easily imagined.” 

“ History is full of such instances. A part of the subjects, 
unwilling to be the dupes of such a fraud, revolt against the 
monarch in name, against the cabal in fact. Now who- are the 
real rebels ? Profession is nothing. Hyder Ally never seated 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


3 5 1 

himself in the presence of the prince he had deposed, though 
he held him captive during life.” 

“ But did not America acquiesce in the dethronement of the 
Stuarts ? ” asked Eve, in whom the love of the right was 
stronger even than the love of country. 

“ Beyond a doubt, though America neither foresaw nor ac- 
quiesced in all the results. The English themselves, probably, 
did not foresee the consequences of their own revolution ; for 
we now find England almost in arms against the consequences 
of the very subversion of the kingly power of which I have 
spoken. ImEngland .it placed a portion of the higher classes 
in possession of authority, at the expense of all the rest of the 
•nation ; whereas, as respects America, it set a remote people 
to rule over her, instead of a prince, who had the same con- 
nection with his colonies as with all the rest of his subjects. 
The late English reform is a peaceable revolution ; and Amer- 
ica would very gladly have done the same thing, could she have 
extricated herself from the consequences, by mere acts of con- 
gress. The whole difference is, that America, pressed upon by 
peculiar circumstances, preceded Etlgland in the revolt about 
sixty years, and that this revolt was against an usurper, and 
not against the legitimate monarch, or against the sovereign 
himself.” 

“ I confess all this is novel to me,” exclaimed Sir George. 

“ I have told you, Sir George Templemore, that, if you stay 
long enough in America, many novel ideas will suggest them- 
selves. You have too much sense to travel through the country 
seeking for petty exceptions that may sustain your aristocrati- 
cal prejudices, or opinions, if you like that better ; but will be 
disposed to judge a nation, not according to preconceived no- 
tions, but according to visible facts.” 

“ They tell me there is a strong bias to aristocracy in Amer- 
ica ; at least such is the report of most European travellers.” 

“ The report of men who do not reflect closely on the 
meaning of words. That there are real aristocrats in opinion 
in America is very true ; there are also a few monarchists, or 
those who fancy themselves monarchists.” 

“ Can a man be deceived on such a point ? ” 

“Nothing is more easy. He who would set up a king 
merely in name, for instance, is not a monarchist, but a vision- 
ary, who confounds names with things.” 

“ I see you will not admit of a balance in the state.” 

“ I shall contend that there must be a preponderating 
authority in every government, from which it derives its char- 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


35 2 

acter ; and if this be not the king, that government is not a 
real monarchy, let the laws be administered in whose name 
they may. Calling an idol Jupiter does not convert it into a 
God. I question if there be a real monarchist left in the Eng- 
lish empire at this very moment. They who make the loudest 
professions that way strike me as being the rankest aristocrats, 
and a real political aristocrat is, and always has been, the most 
efficient enemy of kings.” 

“ But we consider loyalty to the prince as attachment to 
the system.” 

“ That is another matter ; for in that you may be right 
enough, though it is ambiguous as to terms.” 

“ Sir — gentlemen — Mr. John Effingham, sir,” interrupted 
Saunders, “ Mr. Monday is awake, and so werry conwalescent 
— I fear he will not live long. The ship herself is not so much 
conwerted by these new spars as poor Mr. Monday is con- 
werted since he went to sleep.” 

“ I feared this, sir,” observed John Effingham, rising. “ Ac- 
quaint Captain Truck witfr the fact, steward: he desired to be 
sent for at any crisis.” 

He then quitted the cabin, leaving the rest of the party 
wondering that they could have been already so lost to the 
situation of one of their late companions, however different 
from themselves he might be in opinions and character. But in 
this they merely showed their common connection with all the 
rest of the great family of man, who uniformly forget sorrows 
that do not press too hard on self, in the reaction of their feel- 
ings. 


CHAPTER XXX. 

Watchman, what of the night ? Watchman, what of the night ? 

Isaiah . 

The principal hurt of Mr. Monday was one of those wounds 
that usually produce death within eight-and-forty hours. He 
had borne the pain with resolution ; and, as yet, had discovered 
no consciousness of the imminent danger that was so apparent 
to all around him. But a film had suddenly passed from before 
his senses ; and, a man of mere habits, prejudices, and animal 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


353 

enjoyment, he had awakened at the very termination of his 
brief existence to something like a consciousness of his true 
position in the moral world, as well as of his real physical con- 
dition. Under the first impulse of such an alarm, John Effing- 
ham had been sent for ; and he, as has been seen, ordered 
Captain Truck to be summoned. In consequence of the pre- 
vious understanding, these two gentlemen and Mr. Leach ap- 
peared at the stateroom door at the same instant. The apart- 
ment being small, it was arranged between them that the former 
should enter first, having been expressly sent for ; and that the 
others should be introduced at the pleasure of the wounded 
man. 

“ I have brought my Bible, Mr. Leach,” said the captain 
when he and the mate were left alone, “ for a chapter is the very 
least we can give a cabin-passenger, though I am a little at a 
loss to know what particular passage will be the most suitable 
for the occasion. Something from the book of Kings would 
be likely to suit Mr. Monday, as he is a thorough-going king’s 
man.” 

“ It is so long since I read that particular book, sir,” re- 
turned the mate, diligently thumbing his watch key, “ that I 
should be diffident about expressing an opinion. I think, how- 
ever, a little Bible might do him good.” 

“ It is not an easy matter to hit a conscience exactly be- 
tween wind and water. I once thought of producing an im- 
pression on the ship’s company by reading the account of Jonah 
and the whale as a subject likely to attract their attention, and 
to show them the hazards we seamen run ; but, in the end, I 
discovered that the narration struck them all aback as a thing 
not likely to be true. Jack can stand anything but a fish story, 
you know, Leach.” 

“ It is always better to keep clear of miracles at sea, I be- 
lieve, sir, when the people .are to be spoken to : I saw some of 
the men this evening wince about that ship of St. Paul’s carry- 
ing out anchors in a gale.” 

“ The graceless rascals ought to be thankful they are not at 
this very moment trotting through the great desert lashed to 
dromedaries’ tails ! Had I known that, Leach, I would have 
read the verse twice ! But Mr. Monday is altogether a different 
man, and will listen to reason. There is the story of Absalom, 
which is quite interesting; and perhaps the account of the 
battle might be suitable for one who dies in consequence of a 
battle ; but, on the whole, I remember my worthy old father 


354 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


used to say that a sinner ought to be well shaken up at such a 
moment.” 

“ I fancy, sir, Mr. Monday has been a reasonably steady 
man as the world goes. Seeing that he is a passenger, I should 
try and ease him off handsomely and without any of those 
Methodist surges.” 

“ You may be right, Leach, you may be right ; do as you 
would be done by is the golden rule after all. But, here comes 
Mr. John Effingham ; so I fancy we may enter.” 

The captain was not mistaken, for Mr. Monday had just 
taken a restorative, and had expressed a desire to see the two 
officers. The stateroom was a small, neat, and even beautifully 
finished apartment, about seven feet square. It had originally 
been fitted with two berths ; but, previously to taking posses- 
sion of the place, John Effingham had caused the carpenter to 
remove the upper, and Mr. Monday now lay in what had been 
the lower bed. The situation placed him below his attendant, 
and in a position where he might be the more easily assisted. 
A shaded lamp lighted the room, by means of which the cap- 
tain caught the anxious expression of the dying man’s eye, as 
he took a seat himself. 

“ I am grieved to see you in this state, Mr. Monday,” said 
the master, “ and this all the more since it has happened in 
consequence of your bravery in fighting to regain my ship. By 
rights this accident ought to have befallen one of the Montauk’s 
people, or Mr. Leach, here, or even myself, before it befel 
you.” 

Mr. Monday looked at the speaker as if the intended con- 
solation had failed of its effect, and the captain began to sus- 
pect that he should find a difficult subject for his new ministra- 
tions. By way of gaining time, he thrust an elbow into the 
mate’s side as a hint that it was now his turn to offer some- 
thing. 

“ It might have been worse, Mr. Monday,” observed Leach, 
shifting his attitude like a man whose moral and physical action 
moved pari passu : “ it might have been much worse. I once 
saw a man shot in the under jaw, and he lived a fortnight with- 
out any sort of nourishment ! ” 

Still Mr. Monday gazed at the mate as if he thought matters 
could not be much worse. 

“That was a hard case,” put in the captain ; “why, the 
poor fellow had no opportunity to recover without victuals.” 

“ No, sir, nor any drink. He never swallowed a mouthful 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


355 


of liquor of any sort from the time he was hit, until he took 
the plunge when we threw him overboard.” 

Perhaps there is truth in saying that “ misery loves com- 
pany,” for the eye of Mr. Monday turned towards the table on 
which the bottle of cordial still stood, and from which John 
Effingham had just before helped him to a swallow under the 
impression that it was of no moment what he took. The cap- 
tain understood the appeal, and influenced by the same opinion 
concerning the hopelessness of the patient’s condition, besides 
being kindly anxious to v console him, he poured out a small 
glass, all of which he permitted the other to drink. The effect 
wa$ instantaneous, for it would seem this treacherous friend is 
ever to produce a momentary pleasure as a poor compensation 
for its lasting pains. * 

“ I don’t feel so bad, gentlemen,” returned the wounded 
man with a force of voice that startled his visitors. “I feel 
better — much better, and am very glad to see you. Captain 
Truck, I . have the honor to drink your health.” 

The captain looked at the mate as if he thought their visit 
was twenty-four hours too soon, for live, all felt sure, Mr. Mon- 
day could not. But Leach, better placed to observe the coun- 
tenance of the patient, whispered his commander that it was 
merely a “ catspaw, and will not stand.” 

“ I am very glad to see you both, gentlemen,” continued 
Mr. Monday, “ and beg you to help yourselves.” 

The captain changed his tactics. Finding his patient so 
strong and cheerful, he thought consolation would be more 
easily received just at that moment, than it might be even half 
an hour later. 

“ We are all mortal, Mr. Monday ” 

“ Yes, sir ; all very mortal.” 

“ And even the strongest and boldest ought occasionally to 
think of their end.” 

“ Quite true, sir ; quite true. The strongest and boldest. 
When do you think we shall get in, gentlemen ? ” 

Captain Truck afterwards affirmed that he was “ never be- 
fore taken so flat aback by a question as by this.” Still he ex- 
tricated himself from the dilemma with dexterity, the spirit of 
proselytism apparently arising within him in proportion as the 
other manifested indifference to his offices. 

“ There is a port to which we are all steering, my dear sir,” 
he said ; 41 and of which we ought always to bear in mind the 
landmarks and beacons, and that port is Heaven.” 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


35 6 


“ Yes,” added Mr. Leach, “ a port that, sooner or latter, 
will fetch us all up.” 

Mr. Monday gazed from one to the other, and something 
like the state of feeling, from which he had been aroused by 
the cordial, began to return. 

“ Do you think me so bad, gentlemen ? ” he inquired, with 
a little of the eagerness of a startled man. 

“ As bad as one bound direct to so good a place as I hope 
and trust is the case with you, can be,” returned the captain, de- 
termined to follow up the ^advantage he had gained. “ Your 
wound, we fear, is mortal, and people seldom remain long in 
this wicked world with such sort of hurts.” 

“ If he stands that,” thought the captain, “ I shall turn him 
over, at once, to Mr. Effingham.” 

Mr. Monday did not stand it. The illusion produced by the 
liquor, although the latter still sustained his pulses, had begun 
to evaporate, and the melancholy truth resumed its power. 

“ I believe, indeed, that I am near my end, gentlemen,” he 
said faintly ; “ and am thknkful — for — for this consolation.'” 

“ Now will be a good time to throw in the chapter,” whis- 
pered Leach ; “ he seems quite conscious, and very contrite.” 

Captain Truck, in pure despair, and conscious of his own 
want of judgment, had determined to leave the question of the 
selection of this chapter to be decided by chance. Perhaps a 
little of that mysterious dependence on Providence, which ren- 
ders all men more or less superstitious, influenced him ; and 
that he hoped a wisdom surpassing his own might direct him to 
a choice. Fortunately, the book of Psalms is near the middle 
of a sacred volume, and a better disposition of this sublime re- 
pository of pious praise and spiritual wisdom could not have 
been made ; for the chance-directed peruser of the Bible will 
perhaps oftener open among its pages than at any other 
place. 

If we should say that Mr. Monday felt any very profound 
spiritual relief from the reading of Captain Truck, we should both 
overrate the manner of the honest sailor, and the intelligence 
of the dying man. Still the solemn language of praise and ad- 
monition had an effect, and, for the first time since childhood, 
the soul of the latter was moved. God and judgment passed 
before his imagination, and he gasped for breath in a way that 
induced the two seamen to suppose the fatal moment had come, 
even sooner than they expected. The cold sweet stood upon 
the forehead of the patient, and his eyes glared wildly from 
one to the other. The paroxysm, however, was transient, and 


HOME WARD BOUND. 


357 

he soon settled down into a state' of comparative calmness, 
pushing away the gjass that Captain Truck offered, in mistaken 
kindness, with a manner of loathing. 

“ We must comfort him, Leach,” whispered the captain ; 
“ for I see he is fetching up in the old way, as was duly laid 
down by our ancestors in the platform. First, groanings and 
views of the devil, and then consolation and hope. We have 
got him into the first category, and we ought now, in justice, to 
bring-to, and heave a strain to help him through it.” 

“ They generally give ’em prayer, in the river, in this stage 
of the attack,” said Leach. “ If you can remember a short 
prayer, sir, it might ease him off.” 

Captain Truck and his mate, notwithstanding the quaint- 
ness of their thoughts and language, were themselves solemnly 
impressed with the scene, and actuated by the kindest motives. 
Nothing of levity mingled with their notions, but they felt the 
responsibility of officers of a packet, besides entertaining a gen- 
erous interest in the fate of a stranger who had fallen, fighting 
manfully at their side. The old man looked awkwardly about 
him, turned the key of the door, wiped his eyes, gazed wistfully 
at the patient, gave his mate a nudge with his elbow to fol- 
low his example, and knelt down with a heart momentarily as 
devout as is often the case with those who minister at the altar. 
He retained the words of the Lord’s prayer, and these he re- 
peated aloud, distinctly, and with fervor, though not with a 
literal conformity to the text. Once Mr. Leach had to help 
him to the word. When he rose, perspiration stood on his 
forehead, as if he had been engaged in severe toil. 

Perhaps nothing could have occurred more likely to strike 
the imagination of Mr. Monday than to see one, of the known 
character and habits of Captain Truck, thus wrestling with the 
Lord in his own behalf. Always obtuse and dull of thought, 
the first impression was that of wonder ; awe and contrition 
followed. Even the mate was touched, and he afterwards told 
his companion on deck, that “ the hardest day’s work he had 
ever done, was lending a hand to rouse the captain through 
that prayer.” 

“ I thank you, sir,” gasped Mr. Monday, “ I thank you — 
Mr. John Effingham — now, let me see Mr. John Effingham. I 
have no time to lose, and wish to see him.” 

The captain rose to comply, with the feelings of a man who 
had done his duty, and, from that moment, he had a secret 
satisfaction at having so manfully acquitted himself. Indeed, 
it has been remarked by those wdio have listened to his whole 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


35 8 

narrative of the passage, that he invariably lays more stress on 
the scene in the stateroom, than on the readiness and skill 
with which he repaired the damages sustained by his own ship, 
through the means obtained from the Dane, or the spirit with 
which he retook her from the Arabs. 

John Effingham appeared in the stateroom, where the cap- 
tain and Mr. Leach left him alone with the patient. Like all 
strong-minded men, who are conscious of their superiority over 
the rest of their fellow-creatures, this gentleman felt disposed 
to concede most to those who were the least able to contend 
with him. Habitually sarcastic and stern, and sometimes for- 
bidding, he was now mild and discreet. He saw, at a glance, 
that Mr. Monday’s mind was alive to novel feelings, and aware 
that the approach of death frequently removes moral clouds 
that have concealed the powers of the spirit while the animal 
part of the being was ip full vigor, he was surprised at observ- 
ing the sudden change that was so apparent in the countenance 
of the dying man. 

“ I believe, sir, I have been a great sinner,” commenced 
Mr. Monday, who spoke more feebly as the influence of the 
cordial evaporated, and in short and broken sentences. 

“ In that you share the lot of all,” returned John Effing- 
ham. “ We are taught that no man of himself, no unaided 
soul, is competent to its own salvation. Christians look to the 
Redeemer for succor.” 

“ I believe I understand you, but I am a business man, sir, 
and have been taught that reparation is the best atonement for 
a wrong.” 

“ It certainly should be the first.” 

“Yes, indeed it should, sir. I am but the son of poor 
parents, and may have been tempted to some things that are 
improper. My mother, too, I was her only support. Well, the 
Lord will pardon it, if it were wrong, as I dare say it might 
have been. I think I should have drunk less and thought more, 
but for this affair — perhaps it is not yet too late.” 

John Effingham listened with surprise, but with the coolness 
and sagacity that marked his character. He saw the necessity, or 
at least the prudence, of there being another witness present. 
Taking advantage of the exhaustion of the speaker, he stepped 
to the door of Eve’s cabin, and signed Paul to follow him. 
They entered the stateroom together, when John Effingham 
took Mr. Monday soothingly by the hand, offering him a 
nourishment less exciting than the cordial, but which had the 
effect to revive him. 

“ I understand you, sir,” continued Mr. Monday, looking at 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


359 


Paul ; “ it is all very proper ; but I have little to say — the 
papers will explain it all. Those keys, sir — the upper drawer 
of the bureau, and the red morocco case — take it all — this is 
the key. I have kept everything together, from a misgiving 
that an hour would come. In New York you will have time — 
it is not yet too late.” 

As the wounded man spoke at intervals, and with diffi- 
culty, John Effingham had complied with his directions before 
he ceased. He found th^ red morocco case, took the key from 
the ring, and showed both to Mr. Monday, who smiled and 
nodded approbation. The bureau contained paper, wax, and 
all the other appliances of writing. John Effingham enclosed 
the case in a strong envelop, and affixed to it three seals, which 
he impressed with his own arms ; he then asked Paul for his 
watch, that the same might be done with the seal of his com- 
panion. After this precaution, he wrote a brief declaration 
that the contents had been delivered to the two, for the pur- 
pose of examination, and for the benefit of the parties con- 
cerned, whoever they might be, and signed it. Paul did the 
same, and the paper was handed to Mr. Monday, who had still 
strength to add his own signature. 

“ Men do not usually trifle at such moments,” said John 
Effingham, “ and this case may contain mattef of moment to 
wronged and innocent persons. The world little knows the 
extent of the enormities that are thus committed. Take the 
case, Mr. Powis, and lock it up with your effects, until the mo- 
ment for the examination shall come.” 

Mr. Monday was certainly much relieved after this consign- 
ment of the case into safe hands, trifles satisfying the compunc- 
tions of the obtuse. For more than an hour he slumbered. 
During this interval of rest, Captain Truck • appeared at 
the door of the stateroom to inquire into the condition 
of the patient, and, hearing a report so favorable, in common 
with all whose duty did not require them to watch, he retired to 
rest. Paul had also returned, and offered his services, as indeed 
did most of the gentlemen ; but John Effingham dismissed his 
own servant even, and declared it was his intention not to 
quit the place that night. Mr. Monday had reposed confidence 
in him, appeared to be gratified by his attentions and presence, 
and he felt it to be a sort of duty, under such circumstances, 
not to desert a fellow-creature in his extremity. Anything be- 
yond some slight alleviation of the sufferer’s pains was hope- 
less ; but this, he rightly believed, he was as capable of admin- 
istering as another. 


3 6 ° 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


Death is appalling to those of the most iron nerves, when 
it comes quietly and in the stillness and solitude of night.. 
John Effingham was such a man ; but he felt all the peculiarity 
of his situation as he sat alone in the stateroom by the side of 
Mr. Monday, listening to the washing of the waters that the 
ship shoved aside, and to the unquiet breathing of his patient. 
Several times he felt a disposition to steal away for a few min- 
utes, and to refresh himself by exercise in the pure air of the 
ocean ; but as often was the inclination checked by jealous 
glances from the glazed eye of the dying man, who appeared to 
cherish his presence as his own last hope of life. When John 
Effingham wetted the feverish lips, the look he received spoke 
of gratitude and thanks, and once or twice these feelings were 
audible in whispers. He could not desert a being so helpless, 
so dependent ; and, although conscious that he was of no ma- 
terial service beyond sustaining his patient by his presence, he 
felt that this was sufficient to exact much heavier sacrifices. 

During one of the troubled slumbers of the dying man, his 
attendant sat watching the struggles of his countenance, which 
seemecl to betray the workings of the soul that was about to 
quit its tenement, and he mused on the character and fate of 
the being whose departure for the world of spirits he himself was 
so singularly called on to witness ! 

“Of his origin I know nothing,” thought John Effingham, 
“ except by his own passing declarations, and the evident fact 
that, as regards station, it can scarcely have reached me- 
diocrity. He is one of those who appear to live for the most 
vulgar motives that are admissible among men of any culture, 
and whose refinement, such as it is, is purely of the conven- 
tional class of habits. Ignorant, beyond the current opinions 
of a set ; prejudiced in all that relates to nations, religions, and 
characters ; wily with an air of blustering honesty ; credulous 
and intolerant; bold in denunciations and critical remarks, 
without a spark of discrimination, or any knowledge but that 
which has been acquired under a designing dictation ; as in- 
capable of generalizing as he is obstinate in trifles ; good-hu- 
mored by nature, and yet querulous from imitation : — -for what 
purposes was such a creature brought into existence to be hur- 
ried out of it in this eventful manner ? ” The conversation of 
the evening recurred to John Effingham, and he inwardly said, 
“ If there exist such varieties of the human race among nations, 
there are certainly as many species in a moral sense, in civilized 
life itself. This man has his counterpart in a particular feature 
in the everyday American absorbed in the pursuit of gain ; 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


3 6 i 

and yet how widely different are the two in the minor points of 
character ! While the other allows himself no rest, no relax- 
ation, nd mitigation of the eternal gnawing of the vulture ra- 
pacity, this man has made self-indulgence the constant com- 
panion of his toil ; while the other has centred all his pleasures 
in gain, this Englishman, with the same object in view, but 
obedient to national usages has fancied he has been alleviating 
his labors by sensual enjoyments. In what will their 
ends differ ? From the eyes of the American the veil will be 
torn aside when it is too late, perhaps, and the object of his 
earthly pursuit will be made the instrument of his punishment, 
as he sees himself compelled to quit it all for the dark uncer- 
tainty of the grave ; while the blusterer and the bottle compan- 
ion sinks into a forced and appalled repentance, as the animal 
that has hitherto upheld him loses its ascendancy.” 

A groan from Mr. Monday, who now opened his glassy eyes, 
interrupted these musings. The patient signed for the nourish- 
ment and he revived a little. 

“ What is the day of the week ? ” he asked, with an anxiety 
that surprised his kind attendant. 

“ It is, or rather it was Monday ; for we are now past mid- 
night.” 

“ I am glad of it, sir — very glad of it.” 

“ Why should the day of the week be of consequence to you 
now ? ” 

“ There is a saying, sir — I have faith in sayings — they told 
me I was born of a Monday, and should die of a Monday.” 

The other was shocked at this evidence of a lingering and 
abject superstitioi^ii one who could not probably survive many 
hours, and he spoke to him of the Saviour, and of his mediation 
for man. All this could John Effingham do at. need ; and he 
could do it well, too, for few had clearer perceptions of this 
state of probation than himself. His weak point was in the 
pride and strength of his' character ; qualities that indisposed 
him in his own practice to rely on any but himself, under the 
very circumstances which would impress on others the necessity 
of relying solely on God. The dying man heard him atten- 
tively, and the words made a momentary impression. 

“ I do not wish to die, sir,” Mr. Monday said suddenly, after 
a long pause. 

“ It is the general fate ; when the moment arrives, we ought 
to prepare ourselves to meet it.” 

“ I am no coward, Mr. Effingham.” 

“ In one sense I know you are not, for I have seen you 


362 HOMEWARD BOUND. 

proved. I hope you will not be one in any sense. You are 
now in a situation in which manhood will avail you nothing ; 
your dependence should be placed altogether on God>’ 

“ I know it. sir — I try to feel thus ; but I do not wish to 
die. 5 ’ 

“ The love of Christ is illimitable,” said John Effingham, 
powerfully affected by the other’s hopeless misery. 

“ I know it — I hope it — I wish to believe it. Have you a 
mother, Mr. Effingham ? ” 

“ She has been dead many years.” 

“ A wife ? ” 

John Effingham gasped for breath, and one might have 
mistaken him, at the moment, for the sufferer. 

“ None : I am without parent, brother, sister, wife or child. 
My nearest relatives, are in this ship.” 

“ I am of little value ; but, such as I am, mother will miss 
me. We can have but one mother, sir.” 

“ This is very true. If you have any commission or mes- 
sage for your mother, Mr. Monday, I shall have great satisfac- 
tion in attending to your wishes.” 

“ I thank-you, sir; I know of none. She has her notions 
on religion, and — I think it would lessen her sorrow to hear 
that I had a Christian burial.” 

“ Set your heart at rest on that subject : all that our situation 
will allow shall be done.” 

“ Of what account will it all be, Mr. Effingham ? I wish I 
had drunk less, and thought more.” 

John Effingham could say nothing to a compunction that was 
so necessary, though so tardy. 

“ I fear we think too little of this moment in our health and 
strength, sir.” 

“ The greater the necessity, Mr. Monday, of turning our 
thoughts towards that divine mediation which alone can avail 
us, while there is yet opportunity.” 

But Mr. Monday was startled by the near approach of death, 
rather than repentant. He had indurated his feelings by the 
long and continued practice of deadening self-indulgence, and 
he was now like a man who unexpectedly finds himself in the 
presence of an imminent and overwhelming danger, without any 
visible means of mitigation or escape. He groaned and looked 
around him, as if he sought something to cling to, the spirit he 
had shown in the pride of his strength availing nothing. All 
these, however, were but passing emotions, and the natural ob- 
tusity of the man returned. 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 363 

“ I do not, think, sir,” he said, gazing intently at John 
Effingham, “ that I have been a very great sinner.” 

“ I hope not, my good friend ; yet none of us are so free 
from spot as not to require the aid of God to fit us for his holy 
presence.” 

“ Very true, sir — very true, sir. I was duly baptized and 
properly confirmed.” 

“ Offices which are but pledges that we are expected to 
redeem.” 

“ By a regular priest and bishop, sir ; — orthodox and dig- 
nified clergymen ! ” 

“ No doubt : England wants none of the forms of religion. 
But the contrite heart, Mr. Monday, will be sure to meet with 
mercy.” 

“ I feel contrite, sir ; very contrite.” 

A pause of half an hour succeeded, and John Effingham 
thought at first that his patient had again slumbered ; but, 
looking more closely at his situation, he perceived that his eyes 
often opened and wandered over objects near him. Unwill- 
ing to disturb this apparent tranquillity, the minutes were per- 
mitted to pass away uninterrupted, until Mr. Monday spoke 
again of his own accord. 

“ Mr. Effingham — sir — Mr. Effingham,” said the dying 
man. 

“ I am near you, Mr. Monday, and will not leave the 
room.” 

“ Bless you, bless you, do not you desert me ! ” 

“ I shall remain : set your heart at rest, and let me know 
your want's.” 

“ I want life, sir ! ” 

“ That is the gift of God, and its possession depends solely 
on his pleasure. Ask pardon for your sins, and remember the 
mercy and love of the blessed Redeemer.” 

“ I try, sir. I do not think I have been a very great sin- 
ner.” 

“ I hope not : but God can pardon the penitent, however 
great their offences.” 

“ Yes, sir, I know it — I know it. This affair has been so 
unexpected. I have even been at the communion-table, sir : 
yes, my mother made me commune. Nothing was neglected, 
sir.” 

John Effingham was often proud and self-willed in his com- 
munications with men, the inferiority of most of his fellow-crea- 
tures to himself, in principles as well as mind, being too plainly 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


3 6 4 

apparent not to influence the opinions of one who did not too 
closely study his own failings ; but as respects God, he was 
habitually reverent and meek. Spiritual pride formed no part 
of his character, for he felt his own deficiency in the Christian 
qualities, the main defect arising more from a habit of regard- 
ing the infirmities of others than from dwelling too much on 
his own merits. In comparing himself with perfection, no one 
could be more humble : but in limiting the comparison to those 
around him, few were prouder, or few more justly so, were it 
permitted to make such a comparison at all. Prayer with him 
was not habitual, or always well ordered, but he was not 
ashamed to pray ; and when he did bow down his spirit in this 
manner, it was with the force, comprehensiveness, and energy 
of his character. He was now moved by the feeble and com- 
mon-place consolations that Mr. Monday endeavored to extract 
from his situation. He saw the peculiarly deluding and cruel 
substitution of forms for the substance of piety that distinguishes 
the policy of all established churches, though, unlike many of 
his own countrymen his mind was superior to those narrow ex- 
aggerations that, on the other hand, too often convert innocence 
into sin, and puff up the votary with the conceit of a sectarian 
and his self-righteousness. 

“ I will pray with you, Mr. Monday,” he said, kneeling at 
the side of the dying man’s bed : “ we will ask mercy of God 
together, and he may lessen these doubts.” 

Mr. Monday made a sign of eager assent, and John Effing- 
ham prayed in a voice that was distinctly audible to the other. 
The petition was short, beautiful, and even lofty in language, 
without a particle of Scripture jargon, or of the cant of pro- 
fessed devotees ; but it was a fervent, direct, comprehensive, 
and humble appeal to the Deity for mercy on the being who 
now found himself in extremity. A child might have under- 
stood it, while the heart of a man would have melted with its 
affecting and meek sincerity. It is to be hoped that the Great 
Being, whose Spirit pervades the universe, and whose clemency 
is commensurate with his power, also admitted the force of the 
petition, for Mr. Monday smiled with pleasure when John 
Effingham arose. 

“ Thank you, sir — a thousand thanks,” muttered the dying 
man, pressing the hand of the other. “ This is better than all.” 

After this Mr. Monday was easier, and hours passed away 
in nearly a continued silence. John Effingham was now con- 
vinced that his patient slumbered, and he allowed himself to 
fall into a doze. It was after. the morning watch was called, that 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


365 

he was aroused by a movement in the berth. Believing his patient 
required nourishment, or some fluid to moisten his lips, John 
Effingham offered both,- but they were declined. Mr, Monday 
had clasped his hands on his breast, with the fingers upper- 
most, as painters and sculptors are apt to delineate them when 
they represent saints in the act of addressing the Deity, and his 
lips moved, though the words were whispered. John Effingham 
kneeled, and placed his ear so close as to catch the sounds. 
His patient was uttering the simple but beautiful petition trans- 
mitted by Christ himself to man, as the model of all prayer. 

As soon as the other had done, John Effingham repeated 
the sanre prayer fervently and aloud himself, and when he 
opened his eyes, after this solemn homage to God, Mr. Monday 
was dead. 


CHAPTER XXXI. 


Let me alone : — dost thou use to write ^ 

Thy name ? or hast thou a mark to thyself, like an 
Honest, plain-dealing man ? 

Jack Cade . 


At a later hour, the body of the deceased was consigned to 
the ocean with the forms that had been observed the previous 
night at the burial of the seaman. These two ceremonies were 
sad remembrances of the scene the travellers had passed 
through ; and, for ma,ny days, the meancholy that they naturally 
excited pervaded the ship. But, as no one connected by blood 
with any of the living had fallen, and it is not the disposition of 
men to mourn always, this feeling gradually subsided, and at 
the end of three weeks the deaths had lost most of their influ- 
ence, or were recalled only at moments by those who thought it 
was wise to dwell on such solemn subjects. 

Captain Truck had regained his spirits ; for, if he felt mor- 
tified at the extraordinary difficulties and dangers that had be- 
fallen his ship, he also felt proud of the manner in which he had 
extricated himself from them. As for the mates and crew, they 
had already returned to their ordinary habits of toil and fun, 
the accidents of life making but brief and superficial impression 
on natures accustomed to vicissitudes and losses. 


3 66 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


Mr. Dodge appeared to be nearly forgotten during the first 
week after the ship succeeded in effecting her escape ; for he 
had the sagacity to keep himself in the background, in the hope 
that all connected with himself might be overlooked in the hurry 
and excitement of events. At the end of that period, however, 
he resumed his intrigues, and was soon actively engaged in en- 
deavoring to get up a “ public opinion,” by means of which he 
proposed to himself to obtain some reputation for spirit and 
courage. With what success this deeply laid scheme was likely 
to meet, as well as the more familiar condition of the cabins, 
may be gathered by a conversation that took place in the pantry, 
where Saunders and Toast were preparing the hot punch for the 
last of the Sunday nights that Captain Truck expected to be at 
sea. This discourse was held while the few who chose to join 
in jollification that peculiarly recalled the recollection of Mr. 
Monday, were slowly assembling round the great table at the 
urgent request of the master. 

“Well, I must say, Mr. Toast,” the steward commenced, as 
he kept stirring the punch, “ that I am werry much rejoiced 
Captain Truck has resuscertated his old nature, and remembers 
the festivals and fasts, as is becoming the master of a liner. I 
can see no good reason because a ship is under jury-masts, that 
the passengers should forego their natural rest and diet. Mr. 
Monday made a good end, they say, and he had as handsome a 
burial as I ever laid eyes on at sea. I don’t think his own 
friends could have interred him more efficaciously, or more 
piously, had he been on shore.” 

“ It is something, Mr. Saunders, to be able to reflect be- 
forehand on the respectable funeral that your friends have just 
given you. There is a great gratification to contemplate on 
such an ewent.” 

“ You improve in language, Toast, that I will allow ; but 
you sometimes get the words a little wrong. We suspect be- 
fore a thing recurs, and reflect on it after it has ewentuated. You 
might have suspected the death of poor Mr. Monday after he was 
wounded, and reflected on it after he was interred in the water. 
I agree with you that it is consoling to know we have our 
funeral rights properly delineated. Talking of the battle, Mr. 
Toast, I shall take this occasion to express to you the high 
opinion I entertain of your own good conduct. I was a little 
afraid # you might injure Captain Truck in the conflict; but, so 
far as I have ascertained, on close inwestigation, you hurt no- 
body. We colored people have some prejudices against us, 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 367 

and I always rejoice when I meet with one who assists to put 
them down by his conduct.” 

“ They say Mr. Dodge didn’t do much harm, either,” re- 
turned Toast. “ For my part I saw nothing of him after I 
opened my eyes ; though I don’t think I ever stared about me 
so much in my life.” 

Saunders laid a finger on his nose, and shook his head 
significantly. 

“ You may speak to me with # confidence and mistrust, 
Toast, ” he said, “ for we are friends of the same color, besides 
being officers in the same pantry. Has Mr. Dodge conwersed 
with you concerning the ewents of those two or three werry 
ewentful days ? ” 

“ He has insinevated considerable, Mr. Saunders ; though 
I do not think Mr. Dodge is ever a werry free talker.” 

“ Has he surgested the propriety of having an account of 
the whole affair made out by the people, and sustained by 
affidavits ? ” - 

“ Well, sir, I imagine he has. At all ewents, he has been 
much on the forecastle lately, endeavoring to persuade the 
people that they retook the ship, and that the passengers were 
so many encumbrancers in the affair.” . 

“ And, are the people such non composse as to believe him, 
Toast ? ” 

“ Why, sir, it is agreeable to humanity to think well of our- 
selves. I do not say that anybody actually believes this ; but 
in my poor judgment, Mr. Saunders, there are men in the 
ship that would find it pleasant to believe it, if they could.” 

“ Werry true ; for that' is natural. Your hint, Toast, has 
enlightened my mind on a little obscurity that has lately pre- 
wailed over my conceptions. There are Johnson, and Briggs, 
and Hewson, three of the greatest skulks in the ship, the only 
men who prewaricated in the least, so much as by a cold look, 
in the fight ; and these three men have told me that Mr. Dodge 
was the person who had the gun put on the box ; and that he 
druv the Arabs upon the raft. Now, I say, no men with their 
eyes open could have made such a mistake, except they made 
it on purpose. Do you corroborate or contrawerse this state- 
ment, Toast ? ” 

“ I contrawerse it, sir ; for in my poor judgment it was 
Mr. Blunt.” 

“ I am glad we are of the same opinion. I shall say 
nothing till the proper moment arrives, and then I shall ex- 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


368 

hibit my sentiments, Mr. Toast, without recrimination or anxiety, 
for truth is truth.” 

“ I am happy to observe that the ladies are quite relaxed 
from their melancholy, and that they now seem to enjoy them- 
selves ostensibly.” 

Saunders threw a look of envy at his subordinate, whose 
progress in refinement really alarmed his own sense of su- 
periority ; but suppressing the jealous feeling, he replied with 
dignity, — 

“ The remark is quit? just, Mr. Toast, and denotes pene- 
tration. I am always rejoiced when I perceive you elewating 
your thoughts to superior objects, for the honor of the color.” 

“ Mister Saunders,” called out the captain from his seat in 
the armchair; at the head of the table. 

“ Captain Truck, sir.” 

“ Let us taste your liquors.” 

This was the signal that the Saturday-night was about to 
commence, and the officers of the pantty presented their com- 
pounds in good earnest. On this occasion the ladies had 
quietly, but firmly declined being present, but the earnest ap- 
peals of the well-meaning captain had overcome the scruples of 
the gentlemen, all of whom, to avoid the appearance of disre- 
spect to his wishes, had consented to appear. 

“ This is the last Saturday-night, gentlemen, that I shall 
probably ever have the honor of passing in your good com- 
pany,” said Captain Truck, as he disposed of the pitchers and 
glasses before him, so that he had a perfect command of the 
appliances of the occasion, “ and I feel it to be a gratification 
with which I would not willingly dispense. We are now to the 
westward of the Gulf, and, according to my observations and 
calculations, within a hundred miles of Sandy Hook, which, 
with this mild southwest wind, and our weatherly position, I 
hope to be able to show you some time about eight o’clock to- 
morrow morning. Quicker passages have been made certainly, 
but forty days, after all, is no great matter for the westerly run, 
considering that we have had a look at Africa, and are walking 
on crutches.” 

“ We owe a great deal to the trades,” observed Mr. Effing- 
ham ; “ which have treated us as kindly towards the end of 
the passage, as they seemed reluctant to join us in the com- 
mencement. It has been a momentous month, and I hope 
we shall all retain healthful recollections of it as long as we 
live.” 

“ No one will retain as grateful recollections of it as my- 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


369 

self, gentlemen,” resumed the captain. “ You had no agency 
in getting us into this scrape, but the greatest possible agency 
in getting us out of it. Without the knowledge, prudence, and 
courage that you have all displayed, God knows what would 
have become of the poor Montauk, and from the bottom of my 
heart I thank you each and all, while I have the heartfelt satis- 
faction of seeing you around me, and of drinking to your future 
health, happiness and prosperity.” 

The passengers acknowledged their thanks in return, by 
bows, among which, that of Mr. Dodge was the most elaborate 
and conspicuous. The honest captain was too much touched, 
to observe this little piece of audacity, but, at that moment, he 
could have taken even Mr. Dodge in his arms, and pressed him 
to his heart. 

“ Come, gentlemen,” he continued ; “ let us fill and do 
honor to the night. God has us all in his holy keeping, and we 
drift about in the squalls of life, pretty much as he orders the 
wind to blow. ‘ Sweethearts and wives ! ’ and, Mr. Effingham, 
we will not forget beautiful, spirited, sensible, and charming 
daughters.” 

After this piece of nautical gallantry, the glass began to cir- 
culate. The Captain, Sir George Templemore — as the false 
baronet was still called in the cabin, and believed to be by all 
but those who belonged to the coterie of Eve — and Mr. Dodge, 
indulged freely, though the first was too careful of the reputa- 
tion of his ship, to forget that he was on the American coast 
in November. The others partook more sparingly, though 
even they submitted in a slight degree to the influence of good 
cheer, and for the first time since their escape, the laugh was 
heard in the cabin as was wont before to be the case. An hour 
of such indulgence produced again some of the freedom and 
ease which mark the associations of a ship, after the ice is 
fairly broken, and even Mr. Dodge began to be tolerated. This 
person, notwithstanding his conduct on the occasion of the 
battle, had contrived to maintain his ground with the spurious 
baronet, by dint of assiduity and flattery, while the others had 
rather felt pity than aversion, on account of his abject coward- 
ice. The gentlemen did not mention his desertion at the criti- 
cal moment (though Mr. Dodge never forgave those who wit- 
nessed it), for they looked upon his conduct as the result of a 
natural and unconquerable infirmity, that rendered him as much 
the subject of compassion as of reproach. Encouraged by this 
forbearance, and mistaking its motives, he had begun to hope 
his absence had not been detected in the confusion of the fight, 


37 ° 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


and he had even carried his audacity so far as to make an at 
tempt to persuade Mr. Sharp that he had actually been one of 
those who went in the launch of the Dane, to bring down the 
other boat and raft to the reef, after the ship had been recap- 
tured. It is true, in this attempt he had met with a cold re- 
pulse, but it was so gentlemanlike and distant, that he had still 
hopes of succeeding in persuading the other to believe what he 
affirmed ; by way of doing which, he endeavored all he could 
to believe it himself. So much confusion existed in his own 
faculties during the fray, that Mr. Dodge was fain to fancy 
others also might not have been able to distinguish things very 
accurately. 

Under the influence of these feelings, Captain Truck, when 
the glass had circulated a little freely, called on the Editor of 
the Active Inquirer, to favor the company with more extracts 
from the journal. Little persuasion was necessary, and Mr. 
Dodge went into his state-room to bring forth the valuable rec- 
ords of his observations and opinions, with a conviction that 
all was forgotten, and that he was once more about to resume 
his proper place in the social relations of the ship. As for the ' 
four gentlemen who had been over the ground the other pre- j 
tended to describe, they prepared to listen, as men of the world 
would be apt to listen to the superficial and valueless comments 
of a tyro, though not without some expectations of amusement. 

“ I propose that we shift the scene to London,” said Cap- 
tain Truck, “in order that a plain seaman, like myself, may 
judge of the merits of the writer — which, I make no doubt, are j 
very great ; though I cannot now swear to it with as free a con- i 
science as I could wish.” 

“ If I knew the pleasure of the majority,” returned Mr. . 
Dodge, dropping the journal, and looking about him inquir- 
ingly, “ I would cheerfully comply with it ; for I think the ma- j 
jority should always rule. Paris, London, or the Rhine, are the \ 
same to me ; I have seen them all, and am just as well quali- ; 
fled to describe the one as to describe the other.” 

“ No one doubts it, my dear sir ; but I am not as well quali- 'j 
fied to understand one of your descriptions as I am to under- \ 
stand another. Perhaps, even you, sir, may express yourself 
more readily, and have better understood what was said to you ;i 
in English, than in a foreign tongue-” 

“ As for that, I do not think the value of my remarks is les- ] 
sened by the one circumstance, or enhanced by the other, sir. ' 
I make it a rule always to be right, if possible ; and that, I 
fancy, is as much as the natives of the countries themselves .! 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


3 7 1 

can very well effect. You have only to decide, gentlemen, 
whether it shall be England, or France, or the Continent.” 

“ I confess an inclination to the Continent ,” said John Effing- 
ham ; “ for one could scarcely wish to limit a comprehensive- 
ness like that of Mr. Dodge’s to an island, or even to France.” 

“ I see how it is,” exclaimed the captain ; “ we must put 
the traveller through all his paces, and have a little of both ; 
so Mr. Dodge will have the kindness to touch on all things in 
heaven and earth, London and Paris inclusive.” 

On this hint the journalist turned over a few pages care- 
lessly, and then commenced : 

“ ‘ Reached Bruxelles (Mr. Dodge pronounced this word 
Brucksills) at seven in the evening, and put up at the best 
house in the place, called the Silver Lamb, which is quite near the 
celebrated town-house, and, of course in the very centre of the 
beau quarter. As we did not leave until after breakfast next 
morning, the reader may expect a description of this ancient 
capital. It lies altogether on a bit of low, level land ’ ” 

“ Nay, Mr. Dodge,” interrupted the soi-disant Sir George, 
“ I think that must be an error. I have been at Brussels; and 
I declare, now, it struck me as lying a good deal on the side of 
a very steep hill ! ” 

“ All a mistake, sir, I do assure you. There is no more 
hill at Brucksills than on the deck of this ship. You have 
been in too great a hurry, my dear Sir George ; that is the way 
with most travellers ; they do not give themselves time to note 
particulars. You English especially, my dear Sir George, are 
a little apt to precipitate ; and I daresay, you travelled post, 
with four horses, a mode of getting on by which a man may 
very well transfer a hill, in his imagination, from one town to 
another. I travelled chiefly in a voitury, which afforded leisure 
for remarks.” 

Here Mr. Dodge laughed ; for he felt that he had got the 
best of it. 

“ I think you are bound to submit, Sir George Templemore ,” 
said John Effingham, with an emphasis on the name that raised 
a smile among his friends ; “ Brussels certainly lies on a flat ; 
and the hill you saw has, doubtless, been brought up with you 
from Holland in your haste. Mr. Dodge enjoyed a great ad- 
vantage in his mode of travelling ; for, by entering a town in 
the evening, and quitting it only in the morning, he had the 
whole night to look about him.” 

“ That was just my mode of preceeding, Mr. John Effing- 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


372 

ham ; I made it a rule to pass an entire night in every large 
town I came to.” 

“ A circumstance that will give a double value to your 
opinions with our countrymen, Mr. Dodge, since they very 
seldom give themselves half that leisure when once in motion. 
I trust you have not passed over the institutions of Belgium, 
sir ; and most particularly the state of society in the capital, 
of which you saw so much ? ” 

“ By no means ; here are' my remarks on these subjects, — 

“ Belgium, or The Beiges , as the country is now called, is 
one pf the upstart kingdoms that have arisen in our times ; 
and which, from signs that cannot be mistaken, is fated soon 
to be overturned by the glorious principles of freedom. The 
people are ground down, as usual, by the oppression of hard 
task-masters, and bloody-minded priests. The monarch, who 
is a bigoted Catholic of the House of Saxony, being a son of 
the king of that country, and a presumptive heir to the throne 
of Great Britain, in right of his first wife, devoting all his 
thoughts to miracles and saints. The nobles form a class by 
themselves, indulging in all sorts of vices/ — I beg pardon, 
Sir George, but the truth must be told in our country, or one 
had better never speak. — ‘ All sorts of vices, and otherwise be- 
traying the monstrous tendencies of the system.’ ” 

“Pray, Mr. Dodge,” interrupted John Effingham, “have 
you said nothing as to the manner in which the inhabitants re- 
lieve the eternal ennui of always walking on a level surface ? ” 

“ I am afraid not, sir. My attention was chiefly given to 
the institutions, and to the state of society, although I can 
readily imagine they must get to be heartily tired of a dead 
flat.” 

“ Why, sir they have contrived to run a street up and dowm 
the roof of the cathedral ; and up and down this street they 
trot at all hours of the day.” 

Mr. Dodge looked distrustful ; but John Effingham main- 
tained his gravity. After a pause the former continued, — 

“ ‘ The usages of Brucksills are a mixture of Low Dutch 
and High Dutch habits, as is the language. The king being 
a Polander, and a grandson of Augustus, king of Poland, is 
anxious to introduce the customs of the Russians into his court ; 
while his amiable young queen, who was born in New Jersey 
when her illustrious father kept the school at Haddonfield, 
early inbibed those notions of republicanism which so emi- 
nently distinguish his Grace the Honorable Louis Philippe 
Orleans, the present King of the French.’ ” 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


373 

“Nay, Mr. Dodge,” said Mr. Sharp, “you will have all the 
historians ready to cut your throat with envy ! ” 

“ Why, sir, I feel it a duty not to throw away the great op- 
portunities I have enjoyed ; and America is a country in which 
an editor may never hope to mystify his readers. We deal 
with them in facts, Mr. Sharp ; and, although this may not be 
your English practice, we think that truth is powerful and will 
prevail. To continue, — ‘ The kingdom of the Beiges is about 
as large as the northeast corner of Connecticut, including one 
town in Rhode Island ; and the whole population may be about 
equal to that of our tribe of Creek Indians, who dwell in the 
wilder parts of our state of Georgia.’ ” 

“ This particularity is very convincing,” observed Paul ; 
“ and then it has the merit, too, of coming from an eye-wit- 
ness.” 

“ I will now, gentlemen, return with you to Paris, where I 
stayed all of three weeks, and of the society of which my 
knowledge of the language will, of course, enable me to give a 
still more valuable account.” 

“ You mean to publish these hints, I trust, sir ? ” inquired 
the captain. 

“ I shall probably collect them, and enlarge them in the 
way of a book ; but they have already been laid before the 
American public in the columns of the Active Inquirer. I can 
assure you, gentlemen, that my colleagues of the press have 
spoken quite favorably of the letters as they appeared. Per- 
haps you would like to hear some of their opinions ? ” 

Hereupon Mr. Dodge opened a pocket-book, out of which 
he took six or eight slips of printed paper, that had been pre- 
served with care, thqugh obviously well thumbed. Opening 
one, he read as follows : 

“ ‘ Our friend Dodge, of the Active Inquirer, is instructing 
his readers, and edifying mankind in general, with some very 
excellent and pungent remarks on the state of Europe, which 
part of the world he is now exploring with some such enterprise 
and perseverance as Columbus discovered when he entered on 
the unknown waste of the Atlantic. His opinions meet with 
our unqualified approbation, being sound, American, and dis- 
criminating. We fancy these Europeans will begin to think in 
time that Jonathan has some pretty shrewd notions concerning 
themselves, the critturs ! ’ This w r as extracted from the Peo- 
ple’s Advocate, a journal edited with great ability, by Peleg 
Pond, esquire, a thoroughgoing republican, and a profound ob- 
server of mankind.” 


374 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


“ In his own parish in particular,” quaintly added John 
Effingham. “ Pray, sir, have you any more of these critical 
morceaux ? ” 

“At least a dozen,” beginning to read again . — “ Steadfast 
Dodge, esquire, the editor of the Active Inquirer, is now trav- 
elling in Europe, and is illuminating the public mind at home 
by letters that are Johnsonian in style, Chesterfieldian in taste 
and in knowledge of the world, with the redeeming qualities of 
nationality, and republicanism, and truth. We rejoice to per- 
ceive by these valuable contributions to American literature, 
that Steadfast Dodge, esquire, finds no reason to envy the in- 
habitants of the Old World any of their boasted civilization ; 
but that, on the contrary, he is impressed with the superiority 
of our condition over all countries, every post that he progresses. 
America has produced but few men like Dodge ; and even 
Walter Scot might not be ashamed to own some of his descrip- 
tions. We hope he may long continue to travel.” 

“ Voitury ,” added John Effingham gravely. “ You perceive, 
gentlemen, how modestly these editors set forth their intimacy 
with the traveller — ‘our friend Dodge, of the Active Inquirer,’ 
and ‘ Steadfast Dodge, esquire ! ’ — a mode of expression that 
speaks volumes for their own taste, and their profound defer- 
ence for their readers ! ” 

“We always speak of each other in this manner, Mr. John 
Effingham — that is our esprit du corps." 

“And I should think that there would be an esprit de corps 
in the public to resist it,” observed Paul Blunt. 

The distinction was lost on Mr. Dodge, who turned over to 
one of his most elaborate strictures on the state of society in 
France, with all the self-complacency of besotted ignorance and 
provincial superciliousness. Searching out a place to his mind, 
this profound observer of men and manners, who had studied a 
foreign people, whose language when spoken was gibberish to 
him, by travelling five days in a public coach, and living four 
weeks in taverns and eating-houses, besides visiting three the- 
atres, in which he did not understand a single word that was 
uttered, proceeded to lay before his auditors the results of his 
observations. 

“ ‘ The state of female society in France is truly awful,’ ” he 
resumed, * the French Revolution, as is universally known, 
having left neither decorum, modesty, nor beauty in the nation. 
I walk nightly in the galleries of the Palais Royal, where I locate 
myself, and get every opportunity of observing the peculiarities 
of ladies of the first taste and fashion in the metropolis of Eu- 


HOMEWARD ROUND. 


375 

rope. There is one duchess in particular, whose grace and 
enbonpoint have, I confess, attracted my admiration. This lady, 
as my lacquais de place informs me, is sometimes termed la mere 
dn peuple , from her popularity and affability. The young ladies 
of France, judging from the specimens I have seen here — which 
must be of the highest class in the capital, as the spot is under 
the windows of one of the royal palaces — are by no means ob- 
servable for that quiet .reserve and modest diffidence that dis- 
tinguish the fair among our own young countrywomen ; but it 
must be admitted they are remarkable for the manner in which 
they walk alone, in my judgment a most masculine and unbe- 
coming practice. Woman was not made to live alone, and I 
shall contend that she was not made to walk alone. At the 
same time, I confess there is a certain charm in the manner in 
which these ladies place a hand in each pocket of their aprons, 
and balance their bodies, as they move like duchesses through 
the galleries. If I might humbly suggest, the American fair 
might do worse than imitate this Parisian step ; for, as a trav- 
eller, I feel it a duty to exhibit any superior quality that other 
nations possess. I would also remark on the general suavity 
of manners that the ladies of quality ” (this word Mr. Dodge 
pronounced qua-a-lity,’) 1 observe in their promenades in and 
about this genteel quarter of Paris.’ ” 

“ The French ladies ought to be much flattered with this 
notice of them,” cried the captain, filling Mr. Dodge’s glass. 
“ In the name of truth and penetration, sir, proceed.” 

“ ‘ I have lately been invited to. attend a ball in one of the 
first families of France, which resides in the Rue St. Jaques, 
or the St. James’ of Paris. The company was select, and com- 
posed of many of the first persons in the kingdom of des Fran - 
cais. The best possible manners were to be seen here, and the 
dancing was remarkable for its grace and beauty. The air 
with which the ladies turned their heads .on one side, and in- 
clined their bodies in advancing aud retiring, was in the first 
style of the court of Terpsichore. They were all of the very 
first families of France. I heard one excuse herself for going 
away so early, as Madame la Duchesse expected her ; and 
another observed that she was to leave town in the morning 
with Madame la Vicomtesse. The gentlemen, with few excep- 
tions, were in fancy dresses, appearing in coats, some of sky- 
blue, some green, some scarlet, and some navy-blue, as fancy 
dictated, and all more or less laced on the seams ; much in 
the manner as was the case with the Honorable the King the 
morning I saw him leave for Nully. This entertainment was 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


3 7 6 

altogether the best conducted of any I ever attended, the gen- 
tlemen being condescending, and without the least pride, and 
the ladies all grace.’ ” 

“ Graces would be more expressive, if you will excuse my 
suggesting a word, sir,” observed John Effingham, as the other 
paused to take breath. 

“ ‘ I have observed that the people in most monarchies are 
abject and low-minded in their deportment. Thus the men 
take off their hats when they enter churches, although the 
minister be not present ; and even the boys take off their hats 
when they enter private houses. This is commencing servility 
young. I have even seen men kneeling on the cold pavements 
of the churches in the most abject manner, and otherwise be- 
traying the feeling naturally created by slavish institutions.” 

“ Lord help ’em ! ” exclaimed the captain, “ if they begin 
so young, what a bowing and kneeling set of blackguards they 
will get to be in time.” 

“ It is to be presumed that Mr. Dodge has pointed out the 
consequences in the instance of the abject old men mentioned, 
who probably commenced their servility by entering houses 
with their hats off,” said John Effingham. 

“Just so, sir,” rejoined the editor. “I throw in these 
little popular traits because I think they show the differences 
between nations.” 

“ From which I infer,” said Mr. Sharp, “ that in your part 
of America boys do not take off their hats when they enter 
houses, nor men kneel in churches ? ” 

“ Certainly not, sir. Our people get their ideas of man- 
liness early ; and *as for kneeling in churches, we have some 
superstitious sects — I do not mention them ; but, on the whole, 
no nation can treat the house of God more rationally than we 
do in America.” 

“That I will vouch for,” rejoined John Effingham; “for 
the last time I was at home I attended a concert in one of 
them, where an artiste of singular nasal merit favored the com- 
pany with that admirable piece ’ of conjoined sentiment and 
music entitled - Four-and-twenty fiddlers all in a row ! ” 

“ I’ll engage for it,” cried Mr. Dodge, swelling with na- 
tional pride ; “ and felt all the time as independent and easy 
as if he was in a tavern. Oh ! superstition is quite extinct in 
Ameriky ! But I have a few remarks on the church in my 
notes upon England : perhaps you would like to hear them?” 

“ Let me in treat you to read them, ’’said the true Sir George 
Templemore, a little eagerly. 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


377 

“ Now, I protest against any illiberally,” added the false 
Sir George, shaking his finger. 

Mr. Dodge disregarded both ; but, turning to the place, he 
read aloud with his usual self-complacency and unction. 

“‘To-day, I attended public worship in St. church, 

Minories. The congregation was composed of many of the 
first people of England, among whom were present Sir Solo- 
mon Snore, formerly high sheriff of London, a gentleman of 
the first consideration in the empire, and the celebrated Mr. 
Shilling, of the firm of Pound, Shilling, and Pence. There 
v/as certainly a fine, air of polite life in the congregation, but a 
little too much idolatry. Sir Solomon and Mr. Shilling were 
both received with distinction, which was very proper, when we 
remember their elevated rank ; but the genuflexions and 
chaunting met with my very unqualified disapprobation.’ ” 

“ Sir Solomon and the other personage you mention were a 
little puj'sy , perhaps,” observed Mr. Sharp, “ which destroyed 
their grace.” 

“ I disapprove of all kneeling, on general principles, sir. If 
we kneel to one, we shall get to kneel to another, and no one 
can tell where it will end. ‘ The exclusive manner in which 
the congregation were seated in pews, with sides so high that 
it was difficult to see your nearest neighbor ; and these pews’ 
(Mr. Dodge pronounced this word poohs ,) ‘ have often curtains 
that completely enclose their owners, a system of selfishness 
that would not be long tolerated in Ameriky .’ ” 

“ Do indivduals own their pews in America ? ” inquired Mr. 
Sharp. 

“Often,” returned John Effingham; “always, except in 
those particular portions of the country where it is deemed in- 
vidious, and contrary to the public rights, to be better off than 
one’s neighbor, by owning anything that all the community has 
not a better claim to than its proprietor.” 

“ And cannot the owner of a pew curtain it, with a view to 
withdraw into himself at public worship ? ” 

“ America and England are the antipodes of each other in 
all these things. I daresay, now, that you have come among 
us with an idea that our liberty is so very licentious, that a man 
may read a newspaper by himself? ” 

“ I confess, certainly, to that much,” returned Mr. Sharp, 
smiling. 

“We shall teach him better than this, Mr. Dodge, before 
we let him depart. No, sir, you have very contracted ideas of 
liberty, I perceive. With us everything is settled by majorities. 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


37 8 

We eat when the majority eats ; drink, when the majority 
drinks ; sleep, when the majority sleeps ; pray, when the major- 
ity prays. So far from burying ourselves in deep wells of pews, 
with curtains round their edges, we have raised the floors, 
amphitheatre fashion, so that everybody can see everybody ; 
have taken away the sides of the pews, which we have con- 
verted into free and equal seats, and have cut down the side of 
the pulpit so that we can look at the clergyman ; but I under- 
stand there is actually a project on foot to put the congrega- 
tion into the pulpit, and the parson into the aisle, by way of 
letting the latter see that he is no better than he should be. 
This would be a capital arrangement, Mr. Dodge, for the 
‘ Four-and-twenty fiddlers all in a row.’ ” 

The editor of the Active Inquirer was a little distrustful of 
John Effingham, and he was not sorry to continue his extracts, 
although he was obliged to bring himself still further under the 
fire of his assailant. 

“ ‘ This morning,’ Mr. Dodge resumed, “ I stepped into the 
coffee-room of the ‘ Shovel and Tongs,’ public-house, to read 
the morning paper, and, taking a seat by the side of a gentle- 
man who was reading the ‘ Times,’ and drawing to me the 
leaves of the journal, so that it would be more convenient to 
peruse, the man insolently and arrogantly demanded of me, 

‘ What the devil I meant ? ’ This intolerance in the English 
character is owing to the narrowness of the institutions, under 
which men come to fancy liberty applies to persons instead of 
majorities.’ ” 

“You perceive, Mr. Sharp,” said John Effingham, “how 
much more able a stranger is to point out the defects of na- 
tional character than a native. I daresay that in indulging 
your individuality, hitherto, you have imagined you were enjoy- 
ing liberty.” 

“ I fear I have committed some such weakness — but Mr. 
Dodge will have the goodness to proceed.” 

The editor complied as follows : — “ ‘ Nothing has surprised 
me more than the grovelling propensities of the English on the 
subject of names. Thus this very inn, which in America would 
be styled the ‘Eagle Tavern,’ or the ‘Oriental or Occidental 
Hotel,’ or the ‘ Anglo-Saxon Democratical Coffee-house,’ or 
some other equally noble and dignified appellation, is called 
the ‘ Shovel and Tongs.’ One tavern, which might very ap- 
propriately be termed ‘ The Saloon of Peace,’ is very vulgarly 
called ‘ Dolly’s Chop-house.’ ” 

All the gentlemen, not excepting Mr. Sharp, murmured 


HOME WARD B O UND. 3 y 9 

their disgust at so coarse a taste. But most of the party be- 
gan now to tire of this pretending ignorance and provincial 
vulgarity, and, one by one, most of them soon after left the table. 
Captain Truck, however, sent for Mr. Leach, and these two 
worthies, with Mr. Dodge and the spurious baronet, sat an 
hour longer, when all retired to their berths. 


CHAPTER XXXII. 

I’ll meet thee at Philippi. 

Shakespeare. 

Happy is the man who arrives on the coast of New York, 
with the wind at the southward, in the month of November. 
There are two particular conditions of the weather, in which 
the stranger receives the most unfavorable impressions of the 
climate that has been much and unjustly abused, but which two 
particular conditions warrant all the evil that has been said of 
it. One is a sweltering day in summer, and the other an au- 
tumnal day, in which the dry north wind scarce seems to leave 
any marrow in the bones. 

The passengers of the Montauk escaped both these evils, 
and now approached the coast with a bland southwest breeze, 
and a soft sky. The ship had been busy in the night, and 
when the party assembled on deck in the morning, Captain 
Truck told them, that, in an hour they should have a sight of 
the long-desired western continent. As the packet was running 
in at the rate of nine knots, under topmast and topgallant 
studding-sails, being to windward of her port, this was a prom- 
ise that the gallant vessel seemed likely enough to redeem. 

Toast ! ” called out the captain, who had dropped into his 
old habits as naturally as if nothing had occurred, “ bring me a 
coal ; and you, master steward, look well to the breakfast this 
morning. If the wind stands six hours longer, I shall have the 
grief of parting with this good company, and you the grief of 
knowing you will never set another meal before them. These 
are moments to awaken sentiment, and yet I never knew an 
officer of the pantry that did not begin to grin as he drew near 
his port. 

“ It is usually a cheerful moment with every one, I believe, 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


380 

Captain Truck,” said Eve, “ and most of all, should it be one 
of heartfelt gratitude, with us.” 

“ Ay, ay, my dear young lady ; and yet I fancy Mr. Saun- 
ders will explain it rather differently. Has no one sling out 
‘ land/ yet, from aloft, Mr. Leach ? The sands of New Jersey 
ought to be visible before this.” 

“ We have seen the haze of the land since daylight, but not 
land itself.” 

“ Then, like old Columbus, the flowered doublet is mine — 
land, ho ! ” 

The mates and the people laughed, and looking ahead, 
they nodded to each other, and the word “ land ” passed from 
mouth to mouth, with the indifference with which mariners first 
see it in short passages. Not so with the rest. They crowded 
together, and endeavored to catch a glimpse of the coveted 
shore, though, with the exception of Paul, neither could per- 
ceive it. 

“ We must call on you for assistance,” said Eve, who now 
seldom addressed the handsome young seaman without a flush 
on her own beautiful face ; “ for we are all so lubberly that 
none of us can see that which we so earnestly desire.” 

“ Have the kindness to look over the stock of that anchor,” 
said Paul, glad of an excuse to place himself nearer to Eve ; 
“ and you will discover an object on the water.” 

“ I do,” said Eve, “ but is it not a vessel ? ” 

“It is; but a little to the right of that vessel, do you not 
perceive a hazy object at some elevation obove the sea ? ” 

“ The cloud, you mean — a dim, ill-defined, dark body of va- 
por ? ” 

“ So it may seem to you, but to me it appears to be the land. 
That is the bluff-like termination of the celebrated high lands 
of Navesink. By watching it for half an hour, you will perceive 
its form and surface grow gradually more distinct.” 

Eve eagerly pointed out.the place to Mademoiselle Viefville 
and her father, and from that moment, for near an hour, most 
of the passengers kept it steadily in view. As Paul had said, 
the blue of this hazy object deepened ; then its base became 
connected with the water, and it ceased to resemble a cloud 
at all. In twenty more minutes, the faces and angles of the hills 
became visible, and trees started out of their sides. In the end 
a pair of twin lights were seen perched on the summit. 

But the Montauk edged away from these highlands, and 
shaped her course towards a long low spit of sand, that lay 
several miles to the nortward of them. In this direction, fifty 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


38l 

small sails were gathering into, or diverging from the pass, their 
high, gaunt looking canvas resembling so many church towers 
on the plains of Lombardy. These were coasters, steering 
towards their several havens. Two or three outward bound 
ships were among them, holding their way in the direction of 
China, the Pacific Ocean, or Europe. 

About nine, the Montauk met a large ship standing on a 
bowline, with everything set that would draw, and heaping the 
water under her bows. A few minutes after, Captain Truck, 
whose attention had been much diverted from the surrounding 
objects by the care of his ship, came near the group of passen- 
gers, and once more entered into conversation. 

“ Here we are, my dear young lady,” he cried, “ within five 
leagues of Sandy Hook, which lies hereaway, under our lee 
bow ; as pretty a position as heart could wish. This lank, 
hungry looking schooner in shore of us, is a news vessel, and, 
as soon as she is done with the brig near her we shall have her 
in chase, when there will be a good opportunity to get rid of all 
our spare lies. This little fellow to leeward, who is clawing 
up towards us, is the pilot ; after whose arrival, my functions 
cease, and I shall have little to do but to rattle off Saunders and 
Toast, and to feed the pigs.” 

“ And who is this gentleman ahead of us, with his main top- 
sail to the mast, his courses in the brails, and his helm a-lee ? ” 
asked Paul. 

“Some chap who has forgotten his knee buckles and has 
been obliged to send a boat up to town to hunt for them,” coolly 
rejoined the captain, while he sought the focus of the glass, and 
levelled it at the vessel in question. The look was long and 
steady, and twice Captain Truck lowered the instrument to wipe 
the moisture from his own eye. At length, he called out, to the 
amazement of everybody. 

“ Stand by to in all studding sails, and to ware to the east- 
ward. Be lively, men, be lively ! The eternal Foam, as I am a 
miserable sinner ! ” 

Paul laid a hand on the arm of Captain Truck, and stopped 
him, as the other was about to spring towards the forecastle, 
with a view to aid and encourage his people. 

“ You forget that we have neither spars nor sails suited to 
a chase,” said the young man. “ If we haul off to seaward on 
any tack we can try, the corvette will be too much for us now, 
and excuse me if I say that a different course will be advisable. ” 

The captain had learned to respect the opinion of Paul and 
he took the interference kindly. 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


382 

“ What choice remains, but to run down into the very jaws 
of the lion,” he asked, “or to wear round, and stand to the east- 
ward ? ” 

“We have two alternatives. We may pass unnoticed, the 
ship being so much altered ; or we may haul up on the tack we 
are on, and get into shallow water.” 

“ He draws as little as this ship, sir, and would follow. 
There is no port short of Egg Harbor, and into that 1 should be 
bashful about entering with a vessel of this size ; whereas, by 
running to the eastward, and doubling Montauk, which would 
owe us shelter on account of our name, I might get into the 
Sound, or New London, at need, and then claim the sweep- 
stakes, as having won the race.” 

“ This would be impossible, Captain Truck, allow me to 
say. Dead before the wind, we cannot escape, for the land 
would fetch us up in a couple of hours ; to enter by Sandy 
Hook, if known, is impossible, on account of the corvette, and, 
in a chase of a hundred and twenty miles, we should be certain 
to be overtaken.” 

“ I fear you are right, my dear sir, I fear you are right. 
The studding-sails are now in, and I will haul up for the high- 
lands, and anchor under them, should it be necessary. We 
can then give this fellow Vattel in large quantities, for I hardly 
think he will venture to seize us while we have an anchor fast 
to good American ground.” 

“ How near dare you stand to the shore ? ” 

“ Within a mile ahead of us ; but to enter the Hook, the 
bar must be crossed a league or two off.” 

“ The latter is unlucky ; but, by all means, get the vessel 
in with the land ; so near as to leave no doubt as to our being 
in American waters.” 

“ We’ll try him, sir, we’ll try him. After having escaped 
the Arabs, the deuce is in it, if we cannot weather upon John 
Bull ! I beg your pardon, Mr. Sharp ; but this is a question 
that must be settled by some of the niceties of the great 
authorities.” 

The yards were now braced forward, and the ship was 
brought to the wind, so as to head in a little to the northward 
of the bathing-houses at Long Branch. But for this sudden 
change of course, the Montauk would have run down dead 
upon the corvette, and possibly might have passed her unde- 
tected, owing to the change made in her appearance by the 
Dane. So long as she continued “bows on,” standing towards 
them, not a soul on board the Foam suspected her real character, 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


383 

though, now that she acted so strangely, and offered her broad- 
side to view, the truth became known in an instant. The main- 
yard of the corvette was swung, and her sails were filled on the 
same course as that on which the packet was steering. The 
two vessels were about ten miles from the land, the Foam a 
little ahead, but fully a league to leeward. The latter, however, 
soon tacked and stood inshore. This brought the vessels 
nearly abreast of each other, the corvette a mile or more, dead 
to leeward, and distant now some six miles from the coast. 
The great superiority of the corvette’s sailing was soon apparent 
to all on board both vessels, for she apparently went two feet 
to the packet’s one. 

The history of this meeting, so unexpected to Captain 
Truck, was very simple. When the gale had abated, the cor- 
vette, which had received no damage, hauled up along the 
African coast, keeping as near as possible to the supposed 
track of the packet, and failing to fall in with her chase, 
she had filled away for New York. On making the Hook she 
took a pilot, and inquired if the Montauk had arrived. From 
the pilot she learned that the vessel of which she was in quest 
had not yet made its appearance, and she sent on an officer 
up to the town to communicate with the British Consul. On 
the return of this officer, the corvette stood away from the 
land, and commenced cruising in the offing. For a week she 
had now been thus occupied, it being her practice to run close 
in, in the morning, and to remain hovering about the bar until 
near night, when she made sail for an offing. When first seen 
from the Montauk, she had been lying-to, to take in stores sent 
from the town, and to communicate with a news-boat. 

The passengers of the Montauk had just finished their 
breakfast, when the mate reported that the ship was fast shoal- 
ing her water, and that it would be necessary to alter the 
course in a few minutes, or to anchor. On repairing to the 
deck Captain Truck and his companions perceived the land less 
than a mile ahead of them, and the corvette about half that 
distance to the leeward, and nearly abeam. 

“That is a bold fellow,” exclaimed the t captain, “or he 
has got a Sandy Hook pilot on board him.” 

“ Most probably the latter,” said Paul : “ he would scarcely 
be here on this duty, and neglect so simple a precaution.” 

“ I think this would satisfy Mr. Vattel, sir,” returned Captain 
Truck, as the man in the chains sung out, ‘ and a half three ! ’ 
“ Hard up with the helm and lay the yards square, Mr. Leach.” 

“ Now we shall soon know the virtue of Vattel,” said John 


HOME WARD BO UND. 


3 8 4 

Effingham, “ as ten minutes will suffice to raise the question 
very fairly.” 

The Foam put her helm down, and tacked beautifully to 
the southeast. As soon as the Montauk, which vessel was now 
running alongshore, keeping in about four fathoms water, the 
sea being as smooth as a pond, was abeam, the corvette wore 
round, and began to close with her chase, keeping on her 
eastern' or outer board. 

“ Were we an enemy, and a match for that sloop,” said 
Paul, “ this smooth water and yard-arm attitude would make 
quick work.” 

“ Her captain is in the gangway, taking our measure,” ob- 
served Mr. Truck : “here is the glass ; I wish you to examine 
his face, and tell me if you think him a man with whom the law 
of nations will avail anything. See the anchor clear, Mr. Leach, 
for I’m determined to bring up all standing, if the gentleman 
intends to renew the old tricks of John Bull on our coast. 
What do you make of him, Mr. Blunt ? ” 

Paul did not answer, but layingdown the glass, he paced 
the deck rapidly with the manner of one much disturbed. All 
observed this sudden change, though no one presumed to com- 
ment on it. In the mean time the sloop-of-war came up fast, 
and in a few minutes her larboard fore-yard-arm was within 
twenty feet of the starboard main-yard-arm of the Montauk, 
the two vessels running on parallel lines. The corvette now 
hauled up her fore- course, and let her topgallant sails settle on 
the caps, though a dead silence reigned in her. 

“ Give' me the trumpet,” said Captain Truck, stepping to 
the rail ; “ the gentleman is about to give us a piece of his 
mind.” 

The English captain, who was easily known by his two 
epaulettes, also held a trumpet ; but neither of the two 
commanders used his instrument, the distance being sufficiently 
near for the natural voice. 

“ I believe, sir,” commenced the man-of-war’s man, “ that I 
have the pleasure to see Captain Truck, of the Montauk, Lon- 
don packet ? ” 

“ Ay, ay, I’ll warrant you he has my name alongside of John 
Doe and Richard Roe,” muttered Mr. Truck, “ spelt as care- 
fully as it could be in a primer. — I am Captain Truck, and this 
is the Montauk. May 1 ask the name of your vessel, and your 
own, sir ? ” 

“ This is his Britannic Majesty’s ship, the Foam, Captain 
Ducie.” 


I HOMEWARD BOUND. 


385 

“ The Honorable Captain Ducie ! ” exclaimed Mr* Sharp. 
“ I thought I recognized the voice : I know him intimately well.” 

“ Will he stand Vattel? ” anxiously demanded Mr. Truck. 

“ Nay, as for that, I must refer you to himself.” 

“ You appear to have suffered in the gale,” resumed Cap- 
tain Ducie, whose smile was very visible, as he thus addressed 
them like an old acquaintance. “ We fared better ourselves, 
for I believe we did not part a rope-yarn.” 

“ The ship pitched every stick out of her,” returned Cap- 
tain Truck, “ and has given us the trouble of a new outfit.” 

“ In which you appear to have succeeded admirably. Your 
spars and sails are a size or two too small ; but everything 
stands like a church.” 

“ Ay, ay, now we have got on our new clothes, we are not 
ashamed to be seen.” 

“ May I ask if you have been in port to do all this ? ” 

“ No, sir; picked them up alongshore.” 

The Honorable Captain Ducie thought he was quizzed, 
and his manner became a little more cold, though it still retained 
its gentlemanlike tone. 

“ I wish much to see you in private, sir, on an affair of some 
magnitude, and I greatly regret it was not in my power to speak 
you the night you left Portsmouth. I am quite aware you are 
in your own waters, and I feel a strong reluctance to retain 
your passengers when so near their port ; but I shall feel it as a 
particular favor if you will permit me to repair on board for a 
few minutes.” 

“ With all my heart,” cried Captain Truck : “ if you will 
give me room, I will back my main-topsail, but I wish to lay 
my head off shore. This gentleman understands Vattel, and we 
shall have no trouble with him. Keep the anchor clear, Mr. 
Leach, for ‘ fair words butter no parsnips.’ Still, he is a gentle- 
man : — and, Saunders, put a bottle of the old Madeira on the 
cabin table.” 

Captain Ducie now left the rigging in which he had stood, 
and the corvette luffed off to the eastward, to give room to the 
packet, where she hove-to with her fore-topsail aback. The 
Montauk followed, taking a position under her lee. A quarter- 
boat was lowered, and in five minutes its oars were tossed at 
the packet’s lee-gangway, when the commander of the corvette 
ascended the ship’s side, followed by a middle-aged man in the 
dress of a civilian, and a chubby-faced midshipman. 

No one could mistake Captain Ducie for anything but a 
gentleman. He was handsome, well-formed, and about five- 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


386 

and-twenty. The bow he made to Eve, with whose beauty and air 
he seemed instantly struck, would have become a drawing-room ; 
but he was too much of an officer to permit any further atten- 
tion to escape him until he had paid his respects to, and re- 
ceived the compliments of. Captain Truck. He then turned to 
the ladies and Mr. Effingham, and repeated his salutations. 

“ I fear,” he said, “ my duty has made me the unwilling in- 
strument of prolonging your passage, for I believe few ladies 
love the ocean sufficiently, easily to forgive those who lengthen 
its disagreeables.” 

“ We are old travellers, and know how to allow for the obli- 
gations of duty,” Mr. Effingham civilly answered. 

“That they do, sir,” put in Captain Truck ; “and it was 
never my good fortune to have a more agreeable set of passen- 
gers. Mr. Effingham, the Honorable Captain Ducie ; — the 
Honorable Captain Ducie, Mr. Effingham ; — Mr. John Effing- 
ham, Mam'selle V. A. V.” endeavoring always to imitate Eve's 
pronunciation of the name ; — “ Mr. Dodge, the Honorable 
Captain Ducie ; the Honorable Captain Ducie, Mr. Dodge.” 

The Honorable Captain Ducie and all the others, the editor 
of the Active Inquirer excepted, smiled slightly, though they 
respectively bowed and curtseyed ; but Mr. Dodge, who con- 
ceived himself entitled to be formally introduced to every one 
he met, and to know all he saw, whether introduced os not, 
stepped forward promptly, and shook Mr. Ducie cordially by 
the hand. 

Captain Truck now turned in quest of some one else to in- 
troduce ; Mr. Sharp stood near the capstan, and Paul had re- 
tired as far aft as the hurricane-house. 

“ I am happy to see you in the Montank,” added Captain 
Truck, insensibly leading the other towards the capstan, “ and am 
sorry I had not the satisfaction of meeting you in England. 
The Honorable Captain Ducie, Mr. Sharp : Mr. Sharp, the 
Honorable Captain ” 

“ George Templemore ! ” exclaimed the commander of the 
corvette, looking from one to the other. 

“ Charles Ducie ! ” exclaimed the soi-disant Mr. Sharp. 

“ Here then is an end of part of my hopes, and we have 
been on a wrong scent the whole time.” 

“ Perhaps not, Ducie : explain yourself.” 

“ You must have perceived my endeavors to speak you, from 
the moment you sailed ? ” 

“To speak us!” cried Captain Truck. “Yes, sir, we did 
observe your endeavors to speak us” 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


387 

“ It was because I was given to understand that one calling 
himself Sir George Templemore, an impostor, however, had 
taken passage in this ship ; and here I find that we have been 
misled, by the real Sir George Templemore’s having chosen to 
come this way instead of coming by the Liverpool ship. So 
much for your confounded fashionable caprices, Templemore, 
which never lets you know in the morning whether you are to 
shoot yourself or to get married before night.” 

“ And is this gentleman Sir George Templemore ! ” pithily 
demanded Captain Truck. 

“ For that I can vouch, on the knowledge of my whole life.” 

“ And we know this to be true, and have known it since the 
day we sailed,” observed Mr. Effingham. 

Captain Truck was accustomed to passengers under false 
names, but never before had he been so completely mystified. 

“And pray, sir,” he inquired of the baronet, are you a 
member of Parliament ? ” 

“ I have that honor.” 

“ And Templemore Hall is your residence, and you have 
come out to look at the Canadas ? ” 

“ I am the owner of Templemore Hall, and hope to look at 
the Canadas before I return.” 

“ And,” turning to Captain Ducie, “ you sailed in quest of 
another Sir George Templemore — a false one ? ” 

“ That is a part of my errand,” returned Captain Ducie, smil- 
ing.” 

“ Nothing else — you are certain, sir, that this is the whole 
of your errand ? ” 

“ I confess to another motive,” rejoined the other, scarce 
knowing how to take Captain Truck’s question ; “ but this one 
will suffice for the present, I hope.” 

“ This business requires frankness. I mean nothing dis- 
respectful ; but I am in American waters, and should be, sorry, 
after all, to be obliged to throw myself on Vattel.” 

“ Let me act as mediator,” interrupted Sir George Tem- 
plemore. “ Some one has been a defaulter, Ducie ; is it not 
so ? ” 

“ This is the simple truth : an unfortunate, but silly young 
man, of the name of Sandon. He was intrusted with a large 
sum of the public money, and has absconded with quite forty 
thousand pounds.” 

“ And this person, you fancy, did me the honor to travel 
under my name ? ” 

“ Of that we are certain. Mr. Green here,” motioning to 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


388 

the civilian, “comes from the same office, and traced the 
delinquent, under your name, some distance on the Portsmouth 
road. When we heard that a Sir George Templemore had actually 
embarked in the Montauk, the admiral made no scruple in 
sending me after the packet. This has been an unlucky mistake 
for me, as it would have been a feather in the cap of so young 
a commander to catch the rogue.” 

“ You may choose your feather, sir,” returned Captain Truck, 
“ for you will have a right to wear it. The unfortunate young 
man you seek is, out of question, in this ship.” 

Captain Truck now explained that there was a person 
below who had been known to him as Sir George Templemore, 
and who, doubtless, was the unhappy delinquent sought. But 
Captain Ducie did not betray the attention or satisfaction that 
one would have expected from this information, his eye being 
riveted on Paul, who stood beneath the hurricane-house. When 
the latter saw that he attracted attention he advanced slowly, 
even reluctantly, upon the quarter-deck. The meeting between 
these two gentlemen was embarrassed, though each maintained 
his self-possession. 

“ Mr. Powis, I believe ? ” said the officer bowing haughtily. 

“ Captain Ducie, if I am not mistaken ? ” returned the 
other, lifting his hat steadily, though his face become flushed. 

The manner of the two, however, was but little noticed at 
the moment, though all heard the words. Captain Truck drew 
a long “ whe — e — e — w ! ” for this was rather more than even 
he was accustomed to, in the way of masquerades. His eye 
was on the two gentlemen as they walked aft together, and 
alone, when he felt a touch upon his arm. It was the little 
hand of Eve, between whom and the old seaman there existed 
a good deal of trifling, blended with the most entire good-will. 
The young lady laughed with her sweet eyes, shook her fair 
curls, and said mockingly, — 

“ Mr. Sharp, Mr. Blunt ; Mr.. Blunt, Mr. Sharp !” 

“ And were you in the secret all this time, my dear young 
lady ? ” 

“ Every minute of it ; from the buoys of Portsmouth to this 
very spot.” 

“ I shall be obliged to introduce my passengers all over 
again ! ” 

“ Certainly ; and I would recommend that each should show 
a certificate of baptism, or a passport, before you announce his 
or her name.” 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


389 

“ You are, at least, the beautiful Miss Effingham, my dear 
young lady ? ” 

u i ll n ot vouch for that, even,” said Eve, blushing and laugh- 
ing. 

“ That is Mr. John Effingham, I hope ! ” 

“ For that I can vouch. There are not two cousin Tacks on 
earth.” 

“ I wish I knew what the other business of this gentleman 
is ! He seems amicably disposed, except as regards Mr. Blunt. 
They looked coldly and suspiciously at each other.” 

Eve thought so too, and she lost all her desire for pleasan- 
try. Just at this moment Captain Ducie quitted his companion, 
both touching their hats distantly, and returned to the group he 
had so unceremoniously left a few minutes before. 

“ I believe, Captain Truck, you -now know my errand,” he 
said, “ and can say whether you will consent to my examining 
the person whom you have mentioned ? ” 

“ I know one of your errands, sir ; you spoke of having 
two .” 

“ Both will find their completion in this ship, with your 
permission.” 

“ Permission ! That sounds well, at least, my dear young 
lady. Permit me to inquire, Captain Ducie, has either of your 
errands the flavor of tobacco about it ? ” * 

The young man looked surprised, and he began to suspect 
another mystification. 

“The question is so singular that it is not very intel- 
ligible.” 

“ I wish to know, Captain Ducie, if you have anything to 
say to this ship in the way of smuggling ? ” 

“ Certainly not. I am not a custom-house officer, sir, nor 
on the revenue duty ; and I had supposed this vessel a 
regular packet, whose interest is too plain to enter into such a 
pursuit.’’ 

“ You have supposed nothing but the truth, sir ; though we 
cannot always answer for the honesty or discretion of our 
people. A single pound of tobacco might forfeit this noble 
ship ; and, observing the perseverance with which you have 
chased me, I was afraid all was not right with the excise.” 

“ You have had a needless alarm, then, for my two objects 
in coming to America are completely answered by meeting with 
Mr. Powis and Mr. Sandon, who, I have been given to 
understand, is in his state-room below.” 

The party looked at each other, but nothing was said. 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


39 ° 

“ Such being the facts, Captain Ducie, I beg to offer you 
every facility so far as the hospitality of my ship is concerned.” 

“ You will permit us to have an interview with Mr. San- 
don ? ” 

“ Beyond a doubt. I see, sir, you have read Vattel, and 
understand the rights of neutrals, or of independent nations. 
As this interview most probably will be interesting, you may 
desire to have it held in private, and a stateroom will be too 
small for the purpose. My dear young lady, will you have the 
complaisance to lend us your cabin for half an hour ? ” 

Eve bowed assent, and Captain Truck then invited the two 
Englishmen below. 

“ My presence at this interview is of little moment,” 
observed Captain Ducie ; “ Mr. Green is master of the whole 
affair, and I have a matter of importance to arrange with Mr. 
Powis. If one or two of you gentlemen will have the kindness 
to be present, and witness of what passes between Mr. Sandon 
and Mr Green, it would be a great favor. Templemore, I may 
claim this of you ? ” 

“ With all my heart, though it is an unpleasant office to see 
guilt exposed. Should I presnme too much by asking Mr. 
John Effingham to be of our party ? ” 

“ I was about to make the same request,” put in the cap- 
tain. “We shall then be two Englishmen and two Yankees, — 
if Mr. John Effingham will allow me so to style him? ” 

“Until we get within the Hook, Captain Truck, I am a 
Yankee; once in the country, I belong to the Middle States, 
if you will allow me the favor to choose.” 

The last speaker was stopped by a nudge from Captain 
Truck, who seized an opportunity to whisper. 

“ Make no such distinction between outside and inside, I 
beg of you, my dear sir. I hold that the ship is, at this 
identical moment, in the United States of America in a positive 
sense, as well as by a legal fiction ; and I think Vattel will 
bear me out in it.” 

“ Let it pass for that, then. I will be present at your in- 
terview with the fugitive. If the case is not clear against him, 
he shall be protected.” 

Things were now soon arranged ; it being decided that Mr. 
Green, who belonged to one of the English offices, accompanied 
by the gentlemen just named, should descend to the cabin of 
Miss Effingham, in order to receive the delinquent ; while Cap- 
tain Ducie should have his interview with Paul Powis in the 
stateroom of the latter. 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


39 1 

The first party went below immediately ; but Captain 
Ducie remained on deck a minute or two to give an order to 
the midshipman of his boat, who immediately quitted the Mon- 
tauk, and pulled to the corvette. During this brief delay Paul 
approached the ladies, to whom he spoke with a forced in- 
difference, though it was not possible to avoid seeing his con- 
cern. 

His servant, too, was observed watching his movements 
with great interest ; and when the two gentlemen went below 
in company, the man shrugged his shoulders, and actually held 
up his hands, as one is wont to do at the occurrence of any 
surprising or distressing circumstance. 


CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Norfolk, for thee remains a heavy doom, 

Which I with some unwillingness pronounce, 

Shakespeare. 

The history of the unfortunate young man, who, after es- 
caping all the hazards and adventures of the passage, was now 
so unexpectedly overtaken as he was about to reach what he 
fancied an asylum, was no more than one of those common- 
place tissue of events that lead, through vanity and weakness, 
to crime. His father had held an office under the British 
government. Marrying late, and leaving a son and daughter 
just issuing into life at the time of his decease, the situation he 
had himself filled had been given to the first, out of respect to 
the unwearied toil of a faithful servant. 

The young man was one of those who, without principles 
or high motives, live only for vanity. Of prominent vices he 
had none, for there were no salient points in his character on 
which to hang any quality of sufficient boldness to encourage 
crime of that nature. Perhaps he owed his ruin to the circum- 
stance that he had a tolerable person, and was six feet high, as 
much as to any one other thing. His father had been a short 
solid, square-built little man, whose ambition never towered 
above his stature, and who, having entered fairly on the path of 
industry and integrity early in life, had sedulously persevered 
in it to the end. Not so with the son. He read so much 
about aristocratic stature, aristocratic ears, anistocratic hands 


39 2 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


aristocratic feet, and aristocratic air, that he was delighted to 
find that in all these high qualities he was not easily to be dis- 
tinguished from most of the young men of rank he occasionally 
saw riding in the parks, or met in the /Streets ; and though he 
very well knew he was not a lord, he began to fancy it a hap- 
piness to be thought one by strangers, for an hour or two in a 
week. 

His passion for trifles and toys was inherent, and it had 
been increased by reading two or three caricatures of fashion- 
able men in the novels of the day, until his happiness was 
chiefly centred in its indulgence. This was an expensive 
foible ; and its gratification ere long exhausted his legitimate 
means. One or tv/o trifling and undetected peculations favored 
his folly, until a large sum happening to lie at his sole mercy 
for a week or two, he made such an inroad on it as compelled 
a flight. Having made up his mind to quit England, he thought 
it would be as easy to escape with forty thousand pounds as 
with the few hundreds he had already appropriated to himself. 
This capital mistake was the cause of his destruction ; for the 
magnitude of the sum induced the government to take unusual 
steps to recover it, and was the true cause of its having de- 
spatched the cruiser in chase of the Montauk. 

The Mr. Green who had been sent to identify the fugitive, 
was a cold, methodical man, every way resembling the delin- 
quent’s father, whose office-companion he had been, and in 
whose track of undeviating attention to business and negative 
honesty he had faithfully followed. He felt the peculation, or 
robbery, for it scarce deserved a milder term, to be a reproach 
on the corps to which he belonged, besides leaving a stigma 
on the name *of one to whom he had himself looked up as to a 
model for his own imitation and government. It will readily 
be^supposed, therefore, that this person was not prepared to 
meet the delinquent in a very forgiving mood. 

“ Saunders,” said Captain Truck in the stern tone with 
which he often hailed a-top, and which implied that instant 
obedience was a condition of his forbearance, “ go to the state- 
room of the person who has called himself Sir George Temple- 
more — give him my compliments — be very particular, Mr. 
Saunders — and say Captain Truck’s compliments, and then tell 
him I expect the honor of his company in this cabin — the honor 
of his company, remember, in this cabin. If that don’t bring 
him out of his stateroom, I’ll contrive something that shall.” 

The steward turned up the white of his eyes, shrugged his 
shoulders, and proceeded forthwith on the errand. He found 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


393 

• 9 

time, however, to stop in the pantry, and to inform Toast that 
their suspicions were at least in part true. 

u This elucidates the circumstance of his having no attend- 
ant with him, like other gentlemen on board, and a wariety of 
other incidents, that much needed dewelopement. Mr. Blunt, 
I do collect from a few hints on deck, turns out to be a Mr. 
Powis, a much genteeler name ; and as they spoke to some one 
in the ladies’ cabin as ‘ Sir George,’ I should not be overcome 
with astonishment should Mr. Sharp actually eventuate as the 
real baronite.” 

There was time for no more, and Saunders proceeded to 
summon the delinquent. 

“ This is the most unpleasant part of the duty of a packet- 
master between England and America,” continued Captain 
Truck, as soon as Saunders was out of sight. “ Scarce a ship 
sails that it has not some runaway or other, either in the steer- 
age or in the cabins, and we are often called on to aid the civil 
authorities on both sides of the water.” 

“ America seems to be a favorite country with our English 
rogues,” observed the office-man, dryly. “ This is the third 
that has gone, from our own department within as many years.” 

“ Your department appears to be fruitful of such characters, 
sir,” returned Captain Truck, pretty much in the spirit in which 
the first remark had been given. 

Mr. Green was as thorough-going an Englishman as any of 
his class in the island. Methodical, plodding, industrious, and 
regular in all his habits, he was honest by rule, and had no 
leisure or inclination for any other opinions than those which 
were obtained with the smallest effort. In consequence of the 
limited sphere in which he dwelt, in a moral sense at least, he 
was a mass of the prejudices that were most prevalent at the 
period when he first obtained his notions. His hatred of France 
was unconquerable, for he had early learned to consider her as 
the fast enemy of England ; and as to America, he deemed her to 
be the general asylum of all the rogues of his own country — the 
possession of a people who had rebelled against their king be- 
cause the restraints of law were inherently disagreeable to them. 
This opinion he had no more wish to proclaim than he felt a 
desire to go up and down declaring that Satan was the father 
of sin ; but the fact in the one case was just as well established 
in his mind as in the other. If he occasionally betrayed the 
the existence of these sentiments, it was as a man coughs ; not 
because he particularly wishes to cough, but because he cannot 
help it. Finding the subject so naturally introduced, therefore, 


394 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


it is no wonder if some of his peculiar notions escaped him in 
the short dialogue that followed. 

“ We have our share of bad men, I presume, sir,” he re- 
joined to the thrust of Captain Truck ; “but the thing that has 
most attracted comment with us, is the fact that they all go to 
America.” 

“ And we receive our share of rogues, I presume, sir ; and 
it is the subject of animadversion with us that they all come 
from England.” 

Mr. Green did not feel the force of this retort ; but he 
wiped his spectacles as he quietly composed his features into a 
look of dignified gravity. 

“ Some of your most considerable men in America, I believe, 
sir,” he continued, “have been Englishmen, who preferred a 
residence in the colonies to a residence at home.” 

“ I never heard of them,” returned the captain ; “ will you 
have the goodness to name just one ? ” 

“ Why, to begin, there was your Washington. I have often 
heard my father say that he went to school with him in War- 
wickshire, and that he was thought anything but clever, too, 
while he lived in England.” 

“ You perceive, then, that we made something of him when 
we got him over on this side ; for he turned out in the end to 
be a very decent and respectable sort of a person. Judging 
from the language of some of your prints, sir, I should suppose 
that King William enjoyed the reputation of being a respectable 
man in your country ? ” 

'Although startled to hear his sovereign spoken of in this ir- 
reverent manner, Mr. Green answered promptly, — 

“ He is a king, sir, and comports himself as a king.” 

“ And all the better, I daresay, for the thrashing he got when 
a youngster, from the Vermont tailor.” 

Now Captain Truck quite as religiously believed in this vul- 
gar tale concerning the prince in question, as Mr. Green believed 
that Washington had commenced his career as one no better 
than he should be, or as implicitly as Mr. Steadfast Dodge gave 
credit to the ridiculous history of the schoolmaster of Haddon- 
field ; all three of the legends belonging to the same high class 
of historical truths. 

Sir George Templemore looked with surprise at John Effing- 
ham, who gravely remarked, — 

“ Elegant extracts, sir, from the vulgar rumors of two great 
nations. We deal largely in these legends, and you are not 
quite guiltless of them. I dare say, now, if you would be frank, 


HOME WARD BOUND. 


395 

that you yourself have not always been deaf to the reports 
against America.” 

“ You surely do not imagine that I am so ignorant of the 
career of Washington ? ” 

“ Of that I fully acquit you ; nor do /exactly suppose that 
your present monarch was flogged by a tailor in Vermont, or 
that Louis Phillipe kept school in New Jersey. Our position in 
the world raises us beyond these elegancies ; but do you' not 
fancy some hard things of America, more especially concerning 
her disposition to harbor rogues, if they come with full pockets.” 

The baronet laughed, but he colored. He wished to be 
liberal, for he well knew that liberality distinguishes the man 
of the world, and was an indispensable requisite for a gentleman ; 
but it is very hard for an Englishman to manifest true liberality 
towards the ci-devant colonies, and this he felt in the whole of 
his moral sysem, notwithstanding every offort to the contrary. 

“ I will confess, that case of Stephenson made an unfavor- 
able impression in England,” he said with some reluctance. 

“ You mean the absconding member of Parliament,” re- 
turned John Effingham, with emphasis on the four last words. 
“You cannot mean to reproach us with his selection of a place 
of refuge ; for he was picked up at sea by a foreign ship that was 
accidently bound to America.” , 

“ Certainly not with that circumstance, which, as you say, 
was purely an accident. But was there not something extraor- 
dinary in his liberation from arrest? ” 

“ Sir George Templemore, there are few Englishmen with 
whom I would dwell an instant on this subject,’’ said John 
Effingham gravely ; “ but you are one of those who have taught 
me to respect you, and I feel a strong regret whenever I trace 
any of these mistaken notions in a man of your really generous 
disposition. A moment’s reflection will Show you that no civi- 
lized society could exist with the disposition you hint at ; and 
as for the particular case you have mentioned, the man did not 
bring money of any moment with him, and was liberated from 
the arrest on a principle common to all law, where law^ is 
stronger than political power, and which principle we derive 
directly from Great Britain. Depend on it, so far from there 
being a desire to receive rich rogues in America from other 
countries, there is a growing indisposition to receive emigrants 
at all ; for their number is getting to be inconvenient to the 
native population.” 

“ Why does not America pass reciprocal laws with us, then, 
for the mutual delivery of criminals.” 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


39 6 

<5 One insuperable objection to such reciprocity arises from 
the nature of our government, as a confederation, since there 
is no identity in our own criminal jurisprudence : but a chief 
reason is the exceedingly artificial condition of your society, 
which is the very opposite of our own, and indisposes the 
American to visit trilling crimes with so heavy punishments. 
The American, who has a voice in this matter, you will remem- 
ber, is not prepared to hang a half-starved wretch for a theft 
or to send a man to Botany Bay for poaching. The facility with 
which men obtain a livelihood in America has hitherto con- 
verted most rogues into comparatively honest men when they 
get there ; though I think the day is near, now your own police 
is so much improved, when we shall find it necessary in self- 
defence to change our policy. The common language, as I 
am told, induces many knaves, who now find England too hot to 
hold them, to migrate to America.” 

“ Captain Ducie is anxious to know whether Mr. Truck will 
quietly permit this criminal to be transferred to the Foam.” 

“ I do not think he will permit it at all without being over- 
powered, if the request be urged in any manner as a right. In 
that case, he will very properly think that the maintenance of 
his national character is of more importance than the escape 
of a dozen rogues. You may put a harsh construction on his 
course ; but I shall think him right in resisting an unjust and 
an illegal invasion of his rights. I had thought Captain Ducie, 
however, more peaceably disposed from what has passed.” 

“ Perhaps I have expressed myself too strongly. I know 
he would wish to take back the criminal ; but I scarce think 
that he meditates more than persuasion. Ducie is a fine fellow, 
and every way a gentleman.” 

“ He appears to have found an acquaintance in our young 
friend, Powis.” 

“ The meeting between these two gentlemen has surprised 
me, for it can scarcely be termed amicable : and yet it seems 
to occupy more of Ducie’s thoughts just now than the affair of 
the runaway.” 

Both now became silent and thoughtful, for John Effingham 
had too many unpleasant suspicions to wish to speak, and the 
baronet was too generous to suggest a doubt concerning one 
whom he felt to be his rival, and whom, in truth, he had begun 
sincerely to respect, as well as to like. In the mean time, a 
discussion, which had gradually been growing more dogged and 
sullen on the part of Mr. Green, and more biting and caustic 


HOME WA RD B O UNI). 


397 

on that of Captain Truck, was suddenly terminated by the 
reluctant and tardy appearance of Mr. Sandon. 

Guilt, that powerful vindicator of the justice of Providence, 
as it proves the existence of the inward monitor, conscience, 
was painfully impressed on a countenance that, in general, ex- 
pressed little beyond a vacant vanity. Although of a tall and 
athletic person, his limbs trembled in a way to refuse to sup- 
port him, and when he saw the well-known face of Mr. Green, 
the unhappy young man sank into a seat, from a real inability 
to stand. The other regarded him sternly through his specta- 
cles, for more than a miuute. 

“ This is a melancholy picture, Henry Sandon ! ” he at 
length said. “ I am, at least, glad that you do not affect to 
brazen out your crime, but that you show a proper sense of its 
enormity. What would your upright and painstaking father 
have said, had he lived to see his only son in this situation ? ” 

“ He is dead ! ,r returned the young man, hoarsely. “ He 
is dead, and never can know anything about it.” 

The unhappy delinquent experienced a sense of frightful 
pleasure as he uttered these words. 

“It is true, he is dead ; but there are others to suffer by 
your misconduct. Your innocent sister is living, and feels all 
your disgrace.” 

“ She will marry Jones, and forget it all I gave her a 
thousand pounds, and she is married before this.” 

“ In that you are mistaken. She has returned the money, 
for she is, indeed, John Sandon’s daughter, and Mr. Jones re- 
fuses to marry the sister of a thief.” 

The delinquent was vain and unreflecting, rather than sel- 
fish, and he had a natural attachment to his sister, the only 
other child of his parents. The blow, therefore, fell on his 
conscience with double force, coming from this quarter. 

“Julia, can compel him to marry her,” said the startled 
brother ; “ he is bound by a solemn engagement, and the law 
will protect her.” 

“ No law can make a man marry against his will, and your 
poor unfortunate sister is too tender of your feelings whatever 
you may have been of hers, to wish to give Mr. Jones an op- 
portunity of defending himself by exposing your crime. But 
this is wasting words, Mr. Sandon, for I am wanted in the 
office, where I have left things in the hands of an inexperienced 
substitute. Of course you are not prepared to defend an act, 
that your conscience must tell you is inexcusable.” 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


398 

“ I am afraid, Mr. Green, I have been a little thoughtless ; 
or, perhaps, it would be better to say, unlucky.” 

Mr. Sandon had fallen into the general and delusive mis- 
take of those who err, in supposing himself unfortunate rather 
than criminal. With an ingenuity, that, exercised in a better 
cause, would have made him a respectable man, he had been 
endeavoring to excuse his crime to himself, on various pleas of 
necessity, and he had even got at last to justify his act, by 
fancying that some trifling wrong he had received, or which he 
fancied he had received in the settlement of his own private 
account, in some measure excused his fraud, although his own 
denied claim amounted merely to the sum of twenty pounds, 
and that which he had taken was so large. It was under the 
influence of such feelings that he made the answer just given. 

“ A little thoughtless ! unlucky ! And is this the way, Henry 
Sandon, that you name a crime that might almost raise your 
upright father from his grave ? But I will speak no more of 
feelings that you do not seem to understand. You confess to 
have taken forty thousand pounds of the public money, to 
which you have no right or claim ? ” 

“ I certainly have in my hands some money, which I do not 
deny belongs to government.” 

“It is well; and here is my authority to receive it from 
you. Gentlemen, will you have the kindness to see that my 
powers are regular and authentic ? ” 

John Effingham and others cast their eyes over the papers, 
which seemed to be in rule, and they said as much. 

“ Now, sir,” resumed Mr. Green, “ in the first place, I de- 
mand the bills you received in London for this money, and 
your regular endorsement in my favor.” 

The culprit appeared to have made up his mind to this de- 
mand, and, with the same recklessness with which he had ap- 
propriated the money to his own use, he was now ready to re- 
store it, without proposing a condition for his own safety. The 
bills were in his pocket, and seating himself at a table, he 
made .the required endorsement, and handed them to Mr. 
Green. 

“ Here are bills for thirty-eight thousand pounds,” said that 
methodical person, after he had examined the drafts, one by 
one, and counted their amount ; “ and you are known to have 
taken forty thousand. I demand the remainder.” 

“ Would you leave me in a strange country penniless ? ” ex- 
claimed the culprit, in a tone of reproach. 

“ Strange country ! penniless ! ” repeated Mr. Green, look- 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


399 

ing over his spectacles, first at Mr. Truck, and then at Mr. 
Sandon. “ That to which you have no claim must be restored, 
though it strip you to the skin. Every pound you have belongs 
to the public, and to no one else.” 

>4 Your pardon, Mr. Green, and green enough you are, if 
you lay down that doctrine,” interrupted Captain Truck, “ in 
which neither Vattel, nor the revised statutes will bear you out. 
A passenger cannot remove his effects from a ship, until his 
passage be first paid.” 

“That, sir, I dispute, in a question affecting the king’s 
revenues. The claims of government precede all others, and 
the money that has once belonged to the crown, and which has 
not been regularly paid away by the crown, is the crown’s still.” 

“ Crowns and coronations ! Perhaps, Master Green, you 
think you are in Somerset House at this present speaking ? ” 

Now Mr. Green was so completely a star of a confined 
orbit, that his ideas seldom described a tangent to their ordi- 
nary revolutions. He was so much accustomed to hear of 
England ruling colonies, the East and the West, Canada, the 
Cape, and New South Wales, that it was not an easy matter 
for him to conceive himself to be without the influence of the 
British laws. Had he quitted home with the intention to emi- 
grate, or even to travel, it is probable that his mind would 
have kept a more equal pace with his body, but summoned in 
haste from his desk, and with the office spectacles on his nose, 
it is not so much a matter of wonder that he hardly realized 
the truth of his present situation. The man-of-war, in which 
everything was His Majesty’s, sustained this feeling, and it was 
too sudden a change to expect such a man to abandon all his 
most cherished notions at a moment’s warning. The irreverent 
exclamation of Captain Truck shocked him, and he did not fail 
to show as much by the disgust pictured in his countenance. 

“ I am in one of His Majesty’s packets, sir, I presume, 
where, you will permit me to say, a greater deference for the 
high ceremonies of the kingdom ought to be found.” 

“ This would make even old Joe Bunk laugh. You are in 
a New York liner, sir, over which no majesty has any control, 
but their majesties John Griswold and Co. Why, my good sir, 
the sea has unsettled your brain ! ” 

Now, Mr. Green did know that the United States of 
America had obtained their independence, but the whole pro- 
ceeding was so mixed up with rebellion, and a French alliance, 
in his mind, that he always doubted whether the new republic 
had a legal existence at all, and he had been heard to express 


400 


HOME WA RD B 0 UK D. 


his surprise that the twelve judges had not long since decided 
this state of things to be unconstitutional, and overturned the 
American government by mandamus. His disgust increased, 
accordingly, as Captain Truck’s irreverence manifested itself 
in stronger terms, and there was great danger that the har- 
mony, which had hitherto prevailed between the parties, would 
be brought to a violent termination. 

“The respect for the crown in a truly loyal subject, sir,” 
Mr. Green returned sharply, “ is not to be unsettled by the 
sea ; not in my case, at least, whatever it might have been in 
your own.” 

“ My own ! why, the devil, sir, do you take me for a sub- 
ject ?” 

“ A truant one, I fear, though you may have been born in 
London itself.” 

“ Why, my dear sir,” said Captain Truck, taking the other 
by a button, as if he pitied his hallucination, “ you don’t breed 
such men in London. I came from the river, which never had 
a subject in it, or any other majesty, than that of the Saybrook 
Platform. I begin to understand you, at last : you are one of 
those well-meaning men who fancy the earth but a casing to 
the island of Great Britain. Well, I suppose it is more the 
fault of your education than of your nature, and one must over- 
look the mistake. May I ask what is your farther wish, in re- 
ference to this unhappy young man ? ” 

“ He must refund every pound of the public money that 
remains in his possession.” 

“ That is just, and I say yea.” 

“ And all who have received from him any portion of this 
money, under whatever pretences, must restore it to the 
crown.” 

“ My good sir, you can have no notion of the quantity of 
champagne and other good things this unfortunate young man 
has consumed in this ship. Although but a sham baronet, he 
has fared like a real lord ; and you cannot have the heart to 
exact from the owners the keeping of your rogues.” 

“ Government makes no distinction, sir, and always claims 
its own.” 

“Nay; Mr. Green,” interrupted Sir George Templemore, 
“ I much question if government would assert a right to money 
that a peculator or a defaulter fairly spends, even in England ; 
much less does it seem to me it can pretend to the few pounds 
that Captain Truck has lawfully earned.” 

“The money has not been lawfully earned, sir. It is con- 


HOME IV A RD B O UND. 


401 


trary to law to assist a felon to quit the kingdom, and I am 
not certain there are no penalties for that act alone ; and as 
for the public money, it can never legally quit the Treasury 
without the proper office forms.” 

“ My dear Sir George,” put in the captain, “ leave me to 
settle this with Mr. Green, who, no doubt, is authorized to give 
a receipt in full. What is to be done with the delinquent, sir, 
now that you are in possession of his money ? ” 

“ Of course he will be carried back in the Foam, and I 
mourn to be compelled to say, that he must be left in the hands 
of the law.” 

“ What, with or without my permission ? ” 

Mr. Green stared, for his mind was precisely one of those 
which would conceive it to be a high act of audacity in a ci- 
devant colonist to claim the rights of an old country, even did 
he really understand the legality and completeness of the 
separation. 

“ He has committed forgery, sir, to conceal his peculation. 
It is an awful crime ; but they that commit it cannot hope to 
escape the consequences.” 

“ Miserable impostor ! is this true ? ” Captain Truck sternly 
demanded of the trembling culprit. 

“ He calls an oversight forgery, sir,” returned the latter 
huskily. “ I have done nothing to affect my life or liberty.”. 

At this moment Captain Ducie, accompanied by Paul Powis, 
entered the cabin, their faces flushed, and their manner to each 
other a little disturbed, though it was formally courteous. At 
the same instant, Mr. Dodge, who had been dying to be present 
at the secret conference, watched his opportunity to slip in 
also. 

“ I am glad you have come, sir,” said Mr. Green, “for here 
may be .occasion for the services of his Majesty’s officers. Mr. 
Sandon has given up these bills, but two thousand pounds remain 
unaccounted for, and I have traced thirty-five, quite clearly, to 
the master of this ship, who has received it in the way of pas- 
sage-money.” . 

“ Yes, sir, the fact is as plain as the highlands of Navesink 
from the deck,” dryly added Captain Truck. 

“ One thousand of this money has been returned by the de- 
faulter’s sister,” observed Captain Ducie. 

“ Very true, sir ; I had forgotten to give him credit for 

that.” . , ... 

“ The remainder has probably been wasted in those silly 
trifles of which you have told me the unhappy man was so fond, 


402 


HOMEWARD ROUND. 


and for which he has bartered respectability and peace of mind. 
As for the money paid this ship for the passage, it has been 
fairly earned, nor do I know that government has any power to 
reclaim it.” 

Mr. Green heard this opinion with still greater disgust than 
he had felt towards the language of Captain Truck, nor could 
he very well prevent his feelings escaping him in words. 

“ We truly live in perilous times,” he muttered, speaking 
more particularly to John Effingham, out of respect to his 
appearance, “ when the scions of the nobility entertain notions 
so loose. We have vainly fancied in England that the enor- 
mities of the French revolution were neutralized by Billy Pitt ; 
but, sir, we still live in perilous times, for the disease has fairly 
reached the highest classes. I hear that designs are seriously 
entertained against the wigs of the judges and bishops, and the 
next thing will be the throne ! All our venerable institutions 
are in danger.” 

“ I should think the throne might indeed be in danger, sir,” 
returned John Effingham, gravely, “ if it reposes on wigs.” 

“ It is my duty, Captain Truck,” continued Captain Ducie, 
who was a man so very different from his associate that he 
scarcely seemed to belong to the same species, “ to request you 
will deliver to us the person of the culprit, with his effects, 
when we can relieve you and your passengers from the pain of 
witnessing any more of this unpleasant scene.” 

At the sound of the delivery of his person, all the danger of 
his situation rushed forcibly before the imagination of the 
culprit. His face flushed and became pale, and his legs re- 
fused to support him, though he made a desperate effort to 
rise. 

After an instant of silence, he turned to the commander of 
the corvette, and, in piteous accents, appealed to him for 
mercy. 

“ I have been punished severely already,” he continued, as 
his voice returned, “ for the savage Arabs robbed me of every- 
thing I had of any value. These gentlemen know that they 
took my dressing-case, several other curious and valuable articles 
for the toilet, and nearly all my clothes.” 

“ This man is scarcely a responsible being,” said John Effing- 
ham, “for a childish vanity supplies the place of principles, 
self-respect, and duty. With a sister scorned on account of his 
crimes, conviction beyond denial, and a dread punishment star- 
ing him in the face, his thoughts still run on trifles.” 

Captain Ducie gave a look of pity at the miserable young 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


403 


man, and, by his countenance, it was plain to see that he felt 
no relish for his duty. Still he felt himself bound to urge on 
Captain Truck a compliance with his request. The master of 
the packet was a good deal divided by an inherent dislike of 
seeming to yield anything to a British naval officer, a class of 
men whom he learned in early life most heartily to dislike ; his 
kind feelings towards this particular specimen of the class ; a 
reluctance to give a man up to a probable death, or some other 
severe punishment ; and a distaste to being thought desirous of 
harboring a rogue. In this dilemma, therefore, he addressed 
himself to John Effingham for counsel. 

“ I should be pleased to hear your opinion, sir, on this 
matter,” he said, looking at the gentleman just named, “ for 
I own myself to be in a category. Ought we, or not, to deliver 
up the culprit ? ” 

“ Fiat justitia mat cceluin ,” answered John Effingham, who 
never fancied any one could be ignorant of the meaning of 
these familiar words. 

“ That I believe indeed to be Vattel,” said Captain Truck ; 
“ but exceptions alter rules. This young man has some claims 
on us on account of his conduct when in front of the Arabs.” 

“ He fought for himself, sir, and has the merit of preferring 
liberty in a ship to slavery in the desert.” 

“ I think with Mr. John Effingham,” observed Mr. Dodge, 
“ and can see no redeeming quality in his conduct on that 
occasion. He did what we all did, or, as Mr. John Effingham 
has so pithily expressed it, he preferred liberty in our company 
to being an Arab’s slave.” 

“ You will not deliver me up, Captain Truck ! ” exclaimed 
the delinquent. “ They will hang me, if once in their power. 
Oh 1 you will not have the heart to let them hang me ! ” 

Captain Truck was startled at this appeal, but he sternly 
reminded the culprit that it was too late to remember the 
punishment, when the crime was committed. 

“ Never fear, Mr. Sandon,” said the office-man with a sneer ; 
“ these gentlemen will take you to New York, for the sake of 
the thousand pounds, if they can. A rogue is pretty certain 
of a kind reception in America, I hear.” 

“ Then, sir,” exclaimed Captain Truck, “ you had better go 
in with us.” 

“ Mr. Green, Mr. Green, this is indiscreet, to call it by 
no worse a term,” interposed Captain Ducie, who, while he 
was not free from a good deal of the prejudices of his compan- 


404 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


ion, was infinitely better bred, and more in the habit of com- 
manding himself. 

“ Mr. John Effingham, you have heard this wanton insult,’’ 
continued Captain Truck, suppressing his wrath as well as he 
could : “ in what manner ought it to be resented ? ” 

“ Command the offender to quit your ship instantly,” said 
John Effingham firmly. 

Captain Ducie started, and his face flushed, but disregarding 
him altogether, Captain Truck walked deliberately up to Mr. 
Green and ordered him to go into the corvette’s boat. 

“ I shall allow of neither parley nor delay,” added the ex- 
asperated old seaman, struggling to appear cool and dignified, 
though his vocation was little for the latter. “ Do me the 
favor, sir, to permit me to see you into your boat, sir. Saunders 
go on deck, and tell Mr. Leach to have the side manned — with 
three side boys, Saunders ; — and now I ask it as the greatest 
possible favor, that you will walk on deck with me, or — or — 
damn me, but I’ll drag you there, neck and heels ! ” 

It was too much for Captain Truck to seem calm when 
he was in a towering passion, and the outbreak at the close of 
this speech was accompanied by a gesture with a hand which 
was open, it is true, but from which none of the arts of his 
more polite days could erase the knobs and hue that had been 
acquired in early life. 

“ This is strong language, sir, to use to a British officer, 
under the guns of a British cruiser,” exclaimed the commander 
of the corvette. 

“ And his was strong language to use to a man in his own 
country and in his own ship. To you, Captain Ducie, I have 
nothing to say, unless it be to say you are welcome. But your 
companion has indulged in a coarse insult on my country, and 
damn me if I submit to it, if I never see St. Catherine’s Docks 
again. I had too much of this when a young man, to wish to 
find it repeated while an old one.” 

Captain Ducie bit his lip, and he looked exceedingly vexed. 
Athough he had himself blindly imbibed the notion that Amer- 
ica would gladly receive the devil himself if he came with a 
full pocket, he was shocked with the coarseness that would 
throw such an innuendo into the very faces of the people of the 
country. On the other hand, his pride as an officer was hurt 
at the menace of Captain Truck, and all the former harmony 
of the scene was threatened with a sudden termination. 
Captain Ducie had been struck with the gentlemanlike appear- 
ance of both the Effinghams, to say nothing of Eve, the instant 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


405 

his foot touched the deck of the Montauk, and he now turned 
with a manner of reproach to John Effingham, and said, — 

“ Surely, sir, you cannot sustain Mr. Truck in his extraor- 
dinary conduct ! ” 

11 You will pardon me if I say I do. The man has been 1 
permitted to remain longer in the ship than I would have suf- 
fered.” 

“ And, Mr. Powis, what is your opinion ? ” 

“ I fear,” said Paul, smiling coldly, “ that I should have 
knocked him down on the spot.” 

“ Templemore, are you, too, of this way of thinking? ” 

“ I fear the speech of Mr. Green has been without sufficient 
thought. On reflection he will recall it.” 

But Mr. Green would sooner part with life than part with a 
prejudice, and he shook his head in the negative in a way to 
show that his mind was made up. 

“This is trifling,” added Captain Truck. “ Saunders, go 
on deck, and tell Mr. Leach to send down through the skylight 
a single whip, that we may whip this polite personage on deck ; 
and, harkee, Saunders, let there be another on the yard, that 
we may send him into his boat like an anker of gin ! ” 

“This is proceeding too far,” said Captain Ducie. “Mr. 
Green you will oblige me by retiring ; there can be no suspicion 
cast on a vessel of war for conceding a little to an unarmed 
ship.” 

“ A vessel of war should not insult an unarmed ship, sir ! ” 
rejoined Captain Truck, pithily. 

Captain Ducie again colored ; but as he had decided on his 
course, he had the prudence to remain silent. In the mean- 
time Mr. Green sullenly took his hat and papers, and withdrew 
into the boat ; though, on his return to London he did not fail 
to give such a version of the affair as went altogether to corro- 
borate all his own, and his friends’ previous notions of America ; 
and, what is equally singular, he religiously believed all he had 
said on the occasion. 

“What is now to be done with this unhappy man ? ” inquired 
Captain Ducie when order was a little restored. 

The misunderstanding was an unfortunate affair for the 
culprit. Captain Truck felt a strong reluctance to deliver 
him up to justice after all they had gone through together ; 
but the gentlemanlike conduct of the English commander, the 
consciousness of having triumphed in the late conflict, and a 
deep regard for the law, united on the other hand to urge him 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


406 

to yield the unfortunate and weak-minded offender to his own 
authorities. 

“ You do not claim a right to take him out of an American 
ship by violence, if I understand you, Captain Ducie ? ’’ 

“ I do not ; my instructions are merely to demand him.” 

“That. is according to Vattel. By demand you mean, to 
request, to ask for him ? 

“ I mean to request, to ask for him,” returned the English- 
man, smiling. 

“ Then take him, of God’s name ; apd may your laws be 
more merciful to the wretch than he has been to himself, or to 
his kin.” 

Mr. Sandon shrieked, and he threw himself abjectly on his 
knees between the two captains, grasping the legs of both. 

“ Oh ! hear me ! hear me ! ” he exclaimed in a tone of an- 
guish. “ I have given up the money, I will give it all up ! all to 
the last shilling, if you will let me go! You, Captain Truck, 
by whose side I have fought and toiled, you will not have the 
heart to abandon me to these murderers ! ” 

“ It’s d d hard ! ” muttered the captain, actually wiping 

his eyes ; “ but it is what you have drawn upon yourself, I 
fear. Get a good lawyer, my poor fellow, as soon as you arrive, 
and it’s an even chance, after all, that you go free ! ” 

“ Miserable wretch ! ” said Mr. Dodge, confronting the 
still kneeling and agonized delinquent, “ Wretch ! these are 
the penalties of guilt. You have forged and stolen, acts that 
meet with my most unqualified disapprobation, and you are 
unfit for respectable society. — I saw from the very first what 
you truly were, and permitted myself to associate with you, 
merely to detect and dispose you in order that you might not 
bring disgrace on our beloved country. An impostor has no 
chance in America ; and you are fortunate in being taken back 
to your own hemisphere.” 

Mr. Dodge belonged to a tolerably numerous class, that is 
quaintly described as being “ law honest ; ” that is to say, he 
neither committed murder nor petty larceny. When he was 
guilty of moral slander, he took great care that it should not be 
legal slander • and, although his whole life was a tissue of mean 
and baneful vices, he was quite innocent of all those enormities 
that usually occupy the attention of a panel of twelve men. 
This, in his eyes, raised him so far above less prudent sinners 
as to give him a right to address his quondam associate as has 
been just related. But the agony of the culprit was past receiv- 
ing an increase from this brutal attack ; he merely motioned 


HOME WARD BOUND. 


40 7 

the coarse-minded sycophant and demagogue away, and con- 
tinued his appeals to the two captains for mercy. At this mo- 
ment Paul Powis stepped up to the editor, and in a low but 
firm voice ordered him to quit the cabin. 

“ I will pray for you — be your slave — do all you ask, if you 
will not give me up ! ” continued the culprit, fairly writhing in 
his agony. “ Oh ! Captain Ducie, as an English nobleman, 
have mercy on me.” 

“ I must transfer the duty to subordinates,” said the Eng- 
lish commander, a tear actually standing in his eye. “ Will 
you permit a party of armed marines to take this unhappy be- 
ing from your ship, sir.” 

“Perhaps this will be the best course, as he will yield only 
to a show of force. I see no objection to this, Mr. John Effing- 
ham ? ” 

“ None in the world, sir. It is your object to clear your 
ship of a delinquent, and let those among whom he committed 
the fault be the agents.” 

“Ay — ay! this is what Vattel calls the comity of nations. 
Captain Ducie, I beg you will issue your orders.” 

The English commander had foreseen some difficulty ; and, 
in sending away his boat when he came below, he had sent for 
a corporal’s guard. These men were now in a cutter, near the 
ship, lying off on their oars, in a rigid respect to the rights of 
a stranger, however, — as Captain Truck was glad to see, the 
whole party having gone on deck as soon as the arrangement 
was settled. At an order from their commander the marines 
boarded the Montauk and proceeded below in quest of their 
prisoner. 

Mr. Sandon had been left alone in Eve’s cabin ; but as soon 
as he found himself at liberty, he hurried into his own state- 
room. Captain Truck went below, while the marines were en- 
ding the ship ; and, having passed a minute in his own room, 
he stepped across the cabin, to that of the culprit. Opening 
the door without knocking, he. found the unhappy man in the 
very act of applying a pistol to his head, his own hand being 
just in time to prevent the catastrophe. The despair portrayed 
in the face of the criminal prevented reproach or remonstrance, 
for Captain Truck was a man of few words when it was necessary 
to act. Disarming the intended suicide, he coolly counted out 
to him thirty-five pounds, the money paid for his passage, and 
told him to pocket it. 

“ I received this on condition of delivering you safe in New 
York,” he said ; “ and as I shall fail in the bargain, I think it 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


408 

no more than just to return you the money. It may help you on 
the trial.” 

“ Will they hang me ! ” asked Mr. Sandon hoarsely, and 
with an imbecility like that of an infant. 

The appearance of the marines prevented reply, the pris- 
oner was secured, his effects were pointed out, and his person 
was transferred to the boat with the usual military promptitude. 
As soon as this was done the cutter pulled away from the 
packet, and was soon hoisted in again on the corvette’s deck. 
That day month the unfortunate victim of a passion for trifles 
committed suicide in London, just as they were about to trans- 
fer him to Newgate ; and six months later his unhappy sister 
“died of a broken heart. 


CHAPTER XXXIV. 

We’ll attend you there ; 

Where, if you bring not Marcius, we’ll proceed 
In our first way. 

Coriolanus. 

Eve and Mademoiselle Viefville had been unwilling specta- 
tors of a portion of the foregoing scene, and Captain Ducie felt 
a desire to apologize for the part he had been obliged to act in 
it. For this purpose he had begged his friend the baronet to 
solicit a more regular introduction than that received through 
Captain Truck. 

“ My friend Ducie is solicitous to be introduced, Miss Ef- 
fingham, that he may urge something in his own behalf con- 
cerning the commotion he has raised among us.” • 

A graceful assent brought the young commander forward, 
ancf as soon as he was named he made a very suitable expres- 
sion of his regret to the ladies, who received it, as a matter of 
course, favorably. 

“ This is a new duty to me, the arrest of criminals,” added 
Captain Ducie. 

The word criminals sounded harsh to the ear of Eve, and 
she felt her cheek becoming pale. 

“ Much as we regret the cause,” observed the father, “ we 
can spare the person you are about to take from us without 
much pain ; for we have known him for an impostor from the 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


409 

moment he appeared. — Is there not some mistake ? That is 
the third trunk that I have seen passed into the boat marked 
P. P.” 

Captain Ducie smiled, and answered, — 

“ You will call it a bad pun if I say P. P. see,” pointing to 
Paul, who was coming from the cabin attended by Captain 
Truck. The latter was conversing warmly, gesticulating to- 
wards the corvette, and squeezing his companion’s hand. 

“ Am I to understand,” said Mr. Effingham earnestly, 
“ that Mr. Powis, too, is to quit us ? ” 

“ He does me the favor, also,” — Captain Ducie’s lip curled 
a little at the word favor , — “ to accompany me to England.” 

Good breeding and intense feeling caused a profound si- 
lence, until the young man himself approached the party. Paul 
endeavored to be calm, and he even forced a smile as he ad- 
dressed his friends. 

“ Although I escape the honors of amarine guard,” he said, 
— and Eve thought he said it bitterly, “ I am also to be taken 
out of the ship. Chance has several times thrown me into your 
society, Mr. Effingham — Miss Effingham — and, should the same 
good fortune ever again occur, I hope I may be permitted to 
address you at once as an old acquaintance. 

“ We shall always entertain a most grateful recollection of 
your important services, Mr. Powis,” returned the father ; 
“and I shall not cease to wish that the day may soon arrive 
when I can have the pleasure of receiving you under my own 
roof.” 

Paul now offered to take the hand of Mademoiselle, which 
he kissed gallantly. He did the same with Eve, though she felt 
him tremble in the attempt. As these ladies had lived much 
in countries in which this graceful mode of salutation prevails 
among intimates, the act passed as a matter of course. 

With Sir George Templemore, Paul parted with every sign 
of good-will. The people, to whom he had caused a liberal do- 
nation to be made, gave him three cheers, for they understood 
his professional merits at least ; and Saunders, who had not 
been forgotten, attended him assiduously to the side of the ship. 
Here Mr. Leach called, “ the Foam’s away ! ” and Captain 
Ducie’s gig was manned. At the gangway Captain Truck again 
shook Paul cordially by the hand, and whispered something in 
his ear. 

Everything being now ready, the two gentlemen prepared 
to go into the boat. As Eve watched all that passed with an 
almost breathless anxiety, a little ceremonial that now took 


4io 


HOMEWARD BOUND . 


place caused her much pain. Hitherto the manner of Captain 
Ducie, as respected his companion, had struck her as equivocal. 
At times it was haughty and distant, while at others it had ap- 
peared more conciliatory and kind. All these little changes 
she had noticed with a jealous interest, and the slightest ap- 
pearance of respect or of disrespect was remarked, as if it could 
furnish a clue to the mystery of the whole procedure. 

“ Your boat is ready, sir,” said Mr. Leach, stepping out 
of the gangway to give way to Paul, who stood nearest to the 
ladder. 

The latter was about to proceed, when he was touched 
lightly on the shoulder by Captain Ducie, who smiled, Eve 
thought haughtily, and intimated a desire to precede him. Paul 
colored, bowed, and falling back, permitted the English officer 
to enter his own boat first. 

“ Apparemment ce capitaine Anglais est un pen sans facon — 
Voila qui est poli !” whispered Mademoiselle Viefville. 

“ These commanders of vessels of war are little kings,” 
quietly observed Mr. Effingham, who had unavoidably noticed 
the whole procedure. 

The gig was soon clear of the ship, and both the gentlemen 
repeated their adieus to those on deck. To reach the corvette, 
to enter her, and to have the gig swinging on her quarter oc- 
cupied but five minutes. 

Both ships now filled away, and the corvette began to throw 
out one sheet of cloth after another until she was under a cloud 
of canvas, again standing to the eastward with studding-sails 
alow and aloft. On the other hand, the Montauk laid her yards 
square, and ran down to the Hook. The pilot from the corvette 
had been sent on board the packet, and, the wind standing, by 
eleven o’clock the latter had crossed the bar. At this moment 
the low dark stern of the Foam resembled a small black spot 
on the sea sustaining a pyramid of cloud. 

“ You were not on deck, John, to take leave of your young 
friend Powis,” said Mr. Effingham, reproachfully. 

“ I do not wish to witness a ceremony of this extraordinary 
nature. And yet it might have been better if I had.” 

“ Better, cousin Jack ! ” 

“ Better. Poor Monday committed to my care certain 
papers that, I fancy, are of moment to some one, and these I 
entrusted to Mr. Powis with a view to examine them together 
when we should get in. In the hurry of parting he has carried 
them off.” 


HOME WAX D BOUND. 


411 

“ They may be reclaimed by writing to London,” said Mr. 
Effingham. “ Have you his address ? ” 

“ I asked him for it ; but the question appeared to em- 
barrass him.” 

“ Embarrass, cousin Jack ! ” 

“ Embarrass, Miss Effingham.” 

The subject was now dropped by common consent. A few 
moments of awkward silence succeeded, when the interest in- 
separable from a return home, after an absence of years, began 
to resume its influence, and objects on the land were noticed. 
The sudden departure of Paul was not forgotten, however ; for 
it continued the subject of wonder with all for weeks, though 
little more was said on the subject. 

The ship was soon abreast of the Hook, which Eve com- 
pared, to the disadvantage of the celebrated American haven, 
with the rocky promontories and picturesque towers of the 
Mediterranean. 

“ This portion of our bay, at least, is not very admirable,” 
she said, “ though there is a promise of something better 
above.” 

“ Some New York cockney, who has wandered from the 
crackling heat of his Nott stove, has taken it into his poetical 
imagination to liken this bay to that of Naples,” said John Ef- 
fingham ; “ and his fellow-citizens greedily swallow the ab- 
surdity, although there is scarcely a feature in common to give 
the foolish opinion value.” 

“ But the bay above is beautiful ! ” 

“ Barely pretty : when one has seen it alone, for many 
years, and has forgotten the features of other bays, it does not 
appear amiss ; but you , fresh from the bolder landscapes of 
Southern Europe, will be disappointed.” 

Eve, an ardent admirer of nature, heard this with regret, for 
she had as much confidence in the taste of her kinsman as in 
his love of truth. She knew he was superior to the vulgar vanity 
of giving an undue merit to a thing because he had a right of 
property in it ; was a man of the world, and knew what he 
uttered on all such matters ; had not an atom of provincial ad- 
miration or of provincial weakness in his composition ; and, al- 
though as ready as another, and far more able than most, to 
defend his country and her institutions from the rude assault 
of her revilers, that he seldom made the capital mistake of at- 
tempting to defend a weak point. 

The scenery greatly improved, in fact, however, as the ship 
advanced ; and while she went though the pass called the Nar- 


412 


HOME WA RD B 0 UND. 


rows, Eve expressed her delight. Mademoiselle Viefville was 
in ecstasies, not so much with the beauties of the place as with 
the change from the monotony of the ocean to the movement 
and liveliness of the shore. 

“You think this noble scenery? ” said John Efhngham. 

“As far from it as possible, cousin Jack. 1 see much mean- 
ness and poverty in the view, but at the same time it has fine 
parts. The islands are not Italian, certainly ; nor these hills, 
nor yet that line of distant rocks ; but, together, they form a 
pretty bay, and a noble one in extent and uses at least. ” 

“All this is true, Perhaps the earth does not contain an- 
other port with so many advantages for commerce. In this re- 
spect I think it positively unequalled ; but I know a hundred 
bays that surpass it in beauty. Indeed in the Mediterranean it 
is not easy to find a natural haven that does not.” 

Eve was too fresh from the gorgeous coast of Italy to be in 
ecstasies with the meagre villages and villas that, more or less, 
lined the bay of New York ; but when they reached a point 
where the view of the two rivers, separated by the town, came 
before them, with the heights of Brooklyn, heights compara 
tively if not positively, on one side, and the receding wall of the 
palisadoes on the other, Eve insisted that the scene was posi- 
tively fine. 

“ You have well chosen your spot,” said John Effingham ; 
“ but even this is barely good. There is nothing surpassing 
about it.” 

“ But it is home, cousin Jack.” 

“ It is home, Miss Effingham,” he answered, gaping ; “ and as 
you have no cargo to sell, I fear you will find it an exceedingly 
dull one.” 

“ We shall see — we shall see,” returned Eve, laughing. 
Then, looking about her for a few minutes, she added with a 
manner in which real and affected vexation were prettily blended, 
“ In one thing I do confess myself disappointed.” 

“ You will be happy, my dear, if it be in only one.” 

“ These smaller vessels are less picturesque than those I 
have been accustomed to see.” 

“ You have hit upon a very sound criticism, and, by going a 
little deeper into the subject, you will discover a singular 
deficiency in this part of an American landscape. The great 
height of the spars of all the smaller vessels of these waters, 
when compared with the tame and level coast, river banks, and 
the formation of the country in general, has the effect to dimin- 
ish still more the outlines of any particular scene. Beautiful as 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


4 13 

it is, beyond ail competition, the Hudson would seem still more 
so, were it not for these high and ungainly spars. ” 

The pilot now began to shorten sail, and the ship drew into 
that arm of the sea which, by a misnomer peculiarly American, 
it is the fashion to call the East River. Plere our heroine can- 
didly expressed her disappointment, the town seeming mean 
and insignificant. The Battery, of which she remembered a 
little, and had heard so much, although beautifully placed dis- 
appointed her, for it had neither the extent and magnificence 
of a park, nor the embellishments and luxurious shades of a 
garden. As she had been told that her countrymen were almost 
ignorant of the art of landscape gardening, she was not so 
much disappointed with this spot, however, as with the air of 
the town, and the extreme filth and poverty of the quays. Un- 
willing to encourage John Effingham in his disposition to cen- 
sure, she concealed her opinions for a time. 

“ There is less improvement here than even I expected,” 
.said Mr. Effingham, as they got into a coach on the wharf. 
“They had taught me, John, to expect great improvements.” 

“ And great, very great improvements have been made in 
your absence. If you could see this place as you knew it in 
youth, the alterations would seem marvellous.” 

“ I cannot admit this. With Eve, I think the place mean 
in appearance, rather than imposing, and so decidedly provincial 
as not to possess a single feature of a capital.” 

“ The two things are not irreconcilable, Ned, if you will 
take the trouble to tax your memory. The place is mean and 
provincial ; but thirty years since it was still meaner and more 
provincial that it is to-day. A century hence it will begin to 
resemble a large European town.” 

“ What odious objects these posts are ! ” cried Eve. 

“ They give the streets the air of a village, and I do not see 
their uses.” 

“ Those posts are for awnings, and of themselves they prove 
the peculiar country character of the place, if you will reflect, 
however, you will see it could not well be otherwise. This 
town to-day contains near three hundred thousand souls, two- 
thirds of whom are in truth emigrants from the interior of some 
foreign country ; and such a collection of people cannot in a 
day give a town any other character than that which belongs to 
themselves. It is not a crime to be provincial and rustic ; it is 
only ridiculous to fancy yourselves otherwise, when the fact is 
apparent.” 


4i4 


HOME WARD B O UND. 


“ The streets seem deserted. I had thought New York a 
crowded town.” 

“ And yet this is Broadway, a street that every American 
will tell you is so crowded as to render respiration impossible . 9 

“ John Effingham excepted,” said Mr. Effingham smiling. 

“ Is this Broadway ? ” cried Eve, fairly appalled. 

“ Beyond a question. Are you not smothered ? ” 

Eve continued silent until the carriage reached the door of 
her father’s house. On the other hand, Mademoiselle Viefville 
expressed herself delighted with all she saw, a circumstance 
that might have deceived a native of the country, who did not 
know how to explain raptures. In the first place she was a 
Frenchwoman, and accustomed to say pleasant things ; then 
she was just relieved from an element she detested, and the 
land was pleasant in her eyes. But the principal reason is still 
in reserve : Mademoiselle Viefville, like most Europeans, had 
regarded America not merely as a provincial country, and this 
without a high standard of civilization for a province, as the 
truth would have shown, but as a semi-barbarous quarter of the 
world ; and the things she saw so much surpassed her expecta- 
tions, that she was delighted, as it might be, by contrast. 

As we shall have a future occasion to speak of the dwelling 
of Mr. Effingham, and to accompany the reader much further 
in the histories of our several characters, we shall pass over 
the feelings of Eve when fairly established that night under 
her own roof. The next morning, however, when she descended 
to breakfast, she was met by John Effingham, who gravely 
pointed to the following paragraph in one of the daily journals. 

“ The Montauk, London packet, which has been a little 
out of time, arrived yesterday, as reported in our marine news. 
The ship has met with various interesting adventures, that, we 
are happy to hear, will shortly be laid before the world by one 
of her passengers, a gentleman every way qualified for the task. 
Among the distinguished persons arrived in this ship is our 
contemporary, Steadfast Dodge, Esquire, whose amusing and 
instructing letters from Europe are already before the world. 
We are glad to hear that Mr. Dodge returns home better 
satisfied than ever with his own country, which he declares to 
be quite good enough for him. It is whispered that our literary 
friend has played a conspicuous part in some recent events on 
the coast of Africa, though his extreme and well known mod- 
esty renders him indisposed to speak of the affair ; but we for- 
bear ourselves, out of respect to a sensibility that we know how 
to esteem ! 


HOMEWARD BOUND. 


415 


“His Britannic Majesty’s ship, Foam, whose arrival we 
noticed a day or two since, boarded the Montauk off the Hook, 
and took out of her two criminals, one of whom, we are told, 
was a defaulter for one hundred and forty thousand pounds, 
and the other a deserter from the king’s service, though a scion 
of a noble house. More of this to-morrow.” 

The morrow never came, for some new incident took the 
place of the promised narration. A people who do not give 
themselves time to eatj and with whom “ go ahead ” has got 
to be the substitute of even religion, little troubling themselves 
to go back twenty- four hours in search of a fact. 

“ This must be a base falsehood, cousin Jack,” said Eve, as 
she laid down th§ paper, her brow flushed with an indignation 
that, for the moment, proved too strong for even apprehension. 

“ I hope it may turn out to be so, and yet 1 consider the 
affair sufficiently singular to render suspicion at least natural.” 

How Eve both thought and acted in the matter, will appear 
hereafter. 


THE END. 







































4 



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*The Wooing O’t, Part 1 15 

“ “ “ Part II 15 

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By F. ANSTEY. 

*Vice Versa; or, a Lesson to 
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*Cast up by the Sea ' 20 

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Monica 10 

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♦Airy Fairy Lilian 20 

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♦Faith and Unfaith 20 

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Moonshine and Margueri 10 

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Amos Barton. 10 

Silas Mar net 10 

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“ Part II 15 

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♦Early Days of Christianity, Part I. . .20 
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Araeline du Bourg 15 

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A Marriage in High Life 20 

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♦The Lerouge Case 20 

♦Monsieur Lecoq, Part 1 2C 

“ “ Part II 20 

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! ♦Other People’s Money 20 

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♦The Gilded Clique 20 

Promises of Marriage ... 10 1 


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Progress and Poverty DC 

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By OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 

Vicar of Wakefield 10 

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The Dean’s Daughter 23 

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Two on a Tower 20 

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Life of Cromwell 15 

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L’Abbe Constantin 20 

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Rasselas 10 

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“ “ Part It 15 .j 


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♦Hyperion 20 

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The Coming Race 10 

Leila, or the Siege of Granada 10 

Earnest Maltravers 20 

The Haunted House, and Calderon 

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Alice; a sequel to Earnest Maltravers. 20 

A Strange Story 20 

♦Last Days of Pompeii. . 20 

Zanoni 20 

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Paul Clifford 20 

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Money 10 

Richelieu * 10 

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The Berber 20 

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Duke of Kandos 20 

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An Outline of Irish History 10 

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*India, what can she teach us? 20 

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Harry Holbrooke 20 

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Charlotte Temple 10 

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False Hopes 15 

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*Vanity Fair, Part I. 15 

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Science in Short Chapters 20 

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Woman’s Plac? To-day. 

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Four lectures in reply to the Lenten lectures on ‘‘Woman,” by the Rev. 

Morgan Dix, D.D., of Trinity Church, New York. 

By Lillie Devereux Blake. 

No. 104, LOVELiL’S LIBRARY, l*aper Covers, 20 Cents, 
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Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake last evening entertained an audience that filled 
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of society.— Wen; York Times. 

Mrs. Lillie Devereux Blake is a very eloquent lady, and a thorn in the side 
of the Rev. Dr. Dix, and gentlemen who, like him, presume to sky that woman 
is not man’s equal, if not his superior. Mrs. Blake in her reply to Dr. Dix's 
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to which she has the honor to belong . — New York Commercial Advertiser. 

There is no denying that Mrs. Blake has, spartan-like, stood as a break-water 
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Blake, especially .— Albany Sunday Press. 


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T'Ytcid'p&iiMX&'ft't , n% y. 

* * * She advanced to the front of the platform, gesticulated gracefully 
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* * * a most eloquent and polished oration. The peroration was a grand 
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Lillie Devereux Blake, blonde, brilliant, staccate, stylish, is a fluent speaker, 
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There are very few speakers on the platform who have the brightness, 
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She is an easy, graceful sneaker, and wide-awake withal, bringing our fre- 
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Mrs. Blake’s address was forcible and eloquent. The speaker was frequently 
interrupted by applause.— New York Times. 

The most brilliant lady speaker in the city.— New York Herald. 

Has the reputation of being the wittiest woman on the platform.-- San An- 
tonio Express. . , , , . 

Mrs. Blako, who has a most pleasing address, then spoke; a strong vein of 
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'ysterious Island, PtII.xs 
.ysterious Island.PtIII.15 
Tom Brown at Oxford, 

. Parts, each 15 

hicker than Water. . . .20 

n Silk Attire 20 

cottish Chiefs, Part I . . 20 
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Lady Silverdale’s Sweet- 
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Mr. PisistratusBrown ,M. P. 1 o 
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Rifle and Hound in Cey- 

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Mutual Friend, P’t 1 . 20 
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arch of Mincing 


239 - 

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241. 

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234. Pictures from Italy 15 

23 5. Adventures of Philip, Pt 1 . 15 
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236. Knickerbocker History 

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238. The Virginians, Part I.. 20 
The Virginians, Part II. 20 

Erling the Bold 20 

Kenelm Chillingly 20 

Deep Down 20 

Samuel Brohl & Co 20 

Gautran 20 

Bleak House, Part I ... .20 
Bleak House, Part 1 1 ... 20 
What Will He Do With 

It ? 2 Parts, each 20 

246. Sketches ofY oungCouples. 10 

247. Devereux »2o 

248. Life of Webster, Part 1 . 15 
Life of Webster, Pt. II. 15 

The Crayon Papers 20 

The Caxtons, Part I .... 15 
The Caxtons, Part II ... 15 
Autobiography of An- 
thony Trollope 20 

252. Critical Reviews, etc. ... 10 

253. Lucretia 20 

254. Peter the Whaler 20 

255. Last of the Barons. Pt 1 . 15 
Last of the Barons, Pt. 1 1 . 15 

256. Eastern Sketches. 15 

257. All in a Garden Fair.... 20 

258. File No. 113 20 

259. The Parisians, Part I... 20 
The Parisians, Part II.. 20 

260. Mrs. Darling’s Letters. . .20 

261. Master Humphrey’s 

Clock 10 

262. Fatal Boots, etc 10 

263. The Alhambra 15 

264. The Four Georges 10 

265. Plutarch’s Lives, 5 Pts. $1. 

266. Under the Red Flag.... 10 

267. TheHaunted House, etc. 10 

268. When the Ship Comes 

Home 10 

269. One False, both *Fair....2o 

270. The Mudfog Papers, etc. 10 
My Novel, 3 Parts, each.20 
Conquest of Granada. ..20 

Sketches by Boz 20 

A Christmas Carol, etc. . 15 

_ tj . lone Stewart 20 

276. Harold, 2 Parts, each. . . 15 

277. Dora Thorne 20 

278. Maid of Athens. . 20 

279. Conquest of Spain 10 

280. Fitzboodle Papers, etc .. 1 o 

281. Bracebridge Hall 20 

282. Uncommercial Traveller.20 

283. Roundabout Papers 

284. Rossmoyne 20 

285. A Legend of the Rhine, 

etc * 10 

286. Cox’s Diary, etc 10 

287. Beyond Pardon 20 

288. Somebody’sLuggage,etc. 10 

289. Godolphin.. 

290. Salmagundi 20 

291. Famous Funny Fellows. 20 

292. Irish Sketches, etc 20 

293. The Battle of Life, etc.. . 10 

294. Pilgrims of the Rhine ...15 

295. Random Shots 20 

296. Men’s Wives 10 

297. Mystery of Edwin Drood.20 


271. 

272. 
273 - 
274. 
275 - 


298. Reprinted Pieces 20 

299. Astoria 20 

300. Novels by Eminent Hands 10 

301. Companions of Columbus2o 

302. No Thoroughfare 10 

303. Character Sketches, etc. 10 

304. Christmas Books 20 

305. A Tour on the Prairies... 10 

306. Ballads 15 

307. Yellowplush Papers 10 

308. Life of Mahomet, Part 1 . 15 
Life of Mahomet, Pt. 1 1 . 15 

309. Sketches and Travels in 

London xo 

3 10. Oliver Goldsmith, Irving.20 

311. Captain Bonneville .... 20 

312. Golden Girls 20 

313. English Humorists 15 

314. Moorish Chronicles 10 

315. Winifred Power 20 

316. Great HoggartyDiamond 10 

317. Pausanias 15 

318. The New Abelard 20 

319. A Real Queen ....20 

320. The Rose and the Ring.20 

321. Wolfert’s Roost and Mis- 

cellanies, by Irving*. • • 10 

322. Mark Seaworth 20 

323. Life of Paul Jones 20 

324. Round the World 20 

325. Elbow Room 20 

326. The Wizard’s Son 25 

327. Harry Lorrequer 20 

328. How It All Came Round.20 

329. Dante Rosetti’s Poems. 20 

330. The Canon’s Ward 20 

331. Lucile, by O. Meredith. 20 

332. Every Day Cook Book.. 20 

333. Lays of Ancient Rome . . 20 

334. Life of Burns 20 

335. The Young Foresters. . .20 

336. John Bull andHis Island 20 

337. Salt Water, by Kingston. 20 

338. The Midshipman 20 

339. Proctor’s Poems 20 

340. Clayton’s Rangers 20 

341. Schiller’s Poems • 20 

342. Goethe’s Faust 20 

343. Goethe’s Poems. ...... .20 

344. Life of Thackeray 19 

345. Dante’s Vision of Hell, 
Purgatory and Paradise.. 20 

346. An Interesting Case.... 20 

347. Life of Byron, Nichol... 10 

348. Life of Bunyan 10 

349. Valerie’s Fate .....10 

350. Grandfather Lickshingle.20 

351. Lays of the Scottish Ca- 

valiers 20 

352. Willis’ Poems 20 

353. Tales of the French Re- 

volution 15 

354. Loom and Lugger ... . ..20 

355. More Leaves from a Life 

in the Highlands 15 

356. Hygiene of the Brain. ..25 

357. Berkeley the Banker 20 

358. Homes Abroad 15 

359. Scott’s Lady of the Lake, 

with notes ....... . 20 

360. Modern Christianity a 
civilised Heathenism. ... 15 



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